


The Torture Lovers.

by steeleye



Series: It's Grim Up North. [18]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Call of Cthulhu (Roleplaying Game), Ultimate Force (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, F/M, Horror, crossover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-18 15:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12391356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A Grim Up North Story: Stifling a groan of disappointment as yet another night was ruined by death and destruction, Buffy made her way down to the lobby; where she could see at least half a dozen burnt and smouldering corpses lying on the floor.





	1. Chapter 1

The Torture Lovers.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ultimate Force or Call of Cthulhu. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** BtVS with, Ultimate Force (TV) and The Call of Cthulhu (RPG).

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Early July 2006.

 **Words:** Ten chapters each of around 3000 words.

 **Warnings:** Death, destruction, mayhem plus a little light sex.

 **Summary:** A Grim Up North Story: Stifling a groan of disappointment as yet another night was ruined by death and destruction, Buffy made her way down to the lobby; where she could see at least half a dozen burnt and smouldering corpses lying on the floor.

0=0=0=0

**Monday Morning.**

“Hi Giles!” Buffy and Willow chorused as they burst into the library shattering its peace with the noise of their arrival. 

Pausing in mid-stride, Buffy looked around and very quickly realised that she must be dreaming, it'd been very nearly ten years since she'd been a pupil at Sunnydale High, yet here she was back in the good old library again. This was obviously one of her really vivid slayer dreams, so it might be important, or it could just be her mind taking her on a trip down memory lane. However, she couldn't remember having any really vivid dreams like this since Willow had broken the spell that had been put on her by 'Genial' Harriet Grout. The demon had used dreams to feed on people's minds and Buffy's dreams had started to make the demon Harriet worry about her weight!

“Erm...good morning girls,” Giles called from his little office beyond the counter, “Can I make anyone a cup of tea?”

“Erm, no thanks Giles,” Willow replied as she headed for the computer on the research table, “Not for me.”

“I'm good,” Buffy called as she dumped her school bag on the big, polished, work table, she glanced towards the library; Giles still hadn't appeared to greet them properly, she looked back at Willow and noticed for the first time what her friend was wearing.

The short (and Buffy meant _really short_ ) pleated tartan skirt, white knee socks, white blouse and school tie were _so_ not what Willow had normally worn at school. With a feeling of mounting trepidation, Buffy looked down at herself to see what she was wearing; her worse fears were confirmed, she was wearing her old yellow and red, Sunnydale High cheerleader outfit.

Just at that moment, Willow was sitting behind the library's computer going through the start up procedure. Unlike Buffy, Willow didn't appear to have noticed that anything strange was going on. Which, when Buffy thought about it, was how it should be, because unless things were even weirder than she thought they were, this was her dream and Willow was only there because her subconscious told her she should be.

“Oh-my-god!” Buffy groaned quietly, “I'm dreaming about being a sexy cheerleader, that can't be good...” another thought entered Buffy's mind on the heels of the first, “...I wonder if I'm the sort of 'naughty' cheerleader who needs to be spanked?”

“Hey,” Willow looked up from the computer screen and straight at Buffy, “You feeling okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I'm totally fine...why, don't I look fine?” Buffy replied as she looked down at herself again; as far as she could see nothing had changed, like she wasn't standing in the nude waiting for Giles to check in her library books or anything. 

“Oh,” Willow frowned with concern, “you look a little pale is all.”

“Pale?” Buffy shook her head as she reached up under her skirt and started to pull down her panties, “No I'm fine.”

Stepping out of her underwear, Buffy stuffed them into her school bag before hitching up her skirt, bending over the table and spreading her legs as wide as she could. It was like being a passenger in her own body, she just couldn't do a thing to stop herself. However, none of her actions felt in anyway strange or inappropriate for the school library, Buffy looked back at her friend only to see Willow slip her hand inside her blouse and start to caress her own breasts; Buffy couldn't help thinking that that was so unlike Willow.

“Sorry Buffy,” Willow said as she started to unbutton her blouse, “but you definitely look ill, but don't worry,” Willow smiled as she slipped her hand inside bra, “Giles'll be here soon to make you feel okay again.”

“Erm, he will?” Buffy tore her eyes away from what her bestfriend was doing and glanced over her shoulder, “Giles!” she called, not knowing what was making her say these things, “Hurry up I'm waiting!”

“Sorry,” Giles came out of his office, tea cup in hand.

Walking briskly across the library Giles placed his cup on the table near Buffy's head before standing behind her. Resting her chin in her hand, Buffy didn't think that anything at all strange or in anyway 'wrong' or unusual was happening, if fact it felt like she did this almost every day. Frowning and wondering what was keeping Giles, she looked over her shoulder again.

“Hey Giles, what are you doing back there, like, you're totally taking forever, much!” Buffy complained “Y'know, there's totally a draft and its blowing right up my...”

Waking up with a scream Buffy sat up in her bed clutching her duvet to her chest.

“That was like _so_ disturbing in so many ways,” Buffy told herself as she swung her legs out of bed, “I totally need to find myself a boyfriend...”

0=0=0=0

Buffy had first realised that she loved Giles (in a more than a, 'I love you Giles because you're my friend' way) after she'd been caught up in a more than usually bizarre series of events. This voyage of discovery had started with her bathroom ceiling collapsing on her while she was trying to take a shower one morning. After calling Xander in, Buffy discovered that all the water pipes in the block where her chalet was situated needed replacing making her homeless for at least four weeks. Seeing Buffy's dilemma, Giles had invited her to come and stay at his cliff top house while Xander and his friend, Bob (who was a builder) put Buffy's plumbing to rights. 

However, fate hadn't finished with Buffy Summers yet. On her very first night in Giles' house, unable to get to sleep, she'd gone down to the kitchen to make herself a hot drink. Seeing light coming in under the back door she'd opened the door and taken a step out into the garden, only to find herself transported to Germany in April 1945. After many adventures, Buffy bumped into Giles' father who at the time was an officer in the British army. Once again, many adventures later and after fighting insane SS officers who were trying to save the Reich by bringing monsters through magic portals. Plus there had been all the werewolves and zombies to deal with; Buffy had realised she was in love with 'her' Giles.

Of course, Buffy being Buffy hadn't moved out of Giles' home as soon as she'd returned from her little time travelling trip to the Third Reich. No, that would have been way too easy. Instead she continued to live with Giles as they slowly turned into a 'couple', but without all the fun sex stuff. This of course was Buffy's own very special way of torturing herself with unrequited love. It was fairly obvious that Giles would never see her as a prospective sexual partner and looked on her as a much beloved daughter, which from Buffy's point of view was all very nice, but not quite _nice_ enough.

As a 'life partner', Giles had several things to recommend him to Buffy; firstly her relationship with Giles was her longest running and, so far, most successful relationship she'd ever had with a man. He'd never hit her (except in the course of training where it was pretty much expected) they'd only argued infrequently. Giles had never once turned evil or had to be killed to prevent him from destroying the world. He'd never tried to kill her or any of her friends. He'd left her once, but had came straight back just when she needed him the most. He'd also never tried to rape her and he'd certainly never left her to fight demons in South America and then come back unexpectedly with a new wife. 

Then there was the age difference of course, Giles was much younger than two thirds of Buffy's 'serious' ex-boyfriends had been, but she was sure that she could get over that. In fact, as Buffy washed and dressed that fateful morning, she thought that Giles would make such a good partner that she'd better snap him up before some other woman got her hooks into him. A thought came to Buffy's mind that almost made her break out into a cold sweat; what had happened to that Olivia woman who'd visited Giles a few times in Sunnydale? Were they still in contact, should Buffy put a 'contract' out on her? Was Kennedy available to do the hit?

Sighing as she pulled on her jeans, Buffy sat down on the edge of her bed and told herself to stop acting like a silly schoolgirl with a crush on one of her teachers. Giles would never see her the way she wanted him to see her and she should grow up and act like an adult. Unfortunately the adult she wanted to act like wanted to 'act like an adult' with the man who was in the bedroom just down the landing from hers. Buffy would be quite happy if acting like an adult meant she got dressed up like a 'naughty' cheerleader/schoolgirl.

0=0=0=0

“Morning Buffy,” Giles called as he walked into the kitchen.

“Hi Giles,” Buffy smiled as she imagined Giles coming over to her and giving her a hug and a 'good morning' peck on the cheek, “Breakfast?”

“Please,” Giles poured himself a cup of tea before going and sitting at the breakfast table.

“Coming right up,” Buffy called cheerily as she broke two eggs into the frying pan on the stove and checked the bacon under the grill.

Ever since she'd moved in, Buffy had cooked for Giles as a way of paying him rent (she'd have willingly paid rent another way, but that would only lead to heartbreak and insanity when Giles refused her 'payment') it would also lead to her having to find somewhere else to live. Anyway, Buffy enjoyed cooking, she'd learnt to cook while she was in prison (on totally trumped up burglary charges), she'd found it relaxing and it was something she was good at that didn't involve killing monsters, plus cooking in Giles' kitchen with all its mod-cons was a pleasure.

“So,” Buffy placed a plate of bacon, eggs and lightly buttered toast in front of Giles, “what does the weird and wacky world of watching hold for you today?”

“I thought I'd try and find out more about this Teotwawki, fellow,” Giles replied as he tucked into his breakfast.

“Still looking for this Tea-up-wanky guy, huh?” Buffy asked with a grin; she knew that her deliberate mispronunciation made Giles slightly cross (maybe she could make him cross enough that he'd want to spank her!) “Oh my...” Buffy sipped her tea to cover her blushes at the thoughts going through her mind, “...I mean you're still on that? I thought you'd decided that it was myth and not something we needed to worry about.”

“Well,” Giles shrugged, “I decided to give it all another look, you never know I might have missed something,” Giles finished eating and placed his knife and fork neatly on his plate before picking everything up and putting them in the dish washer. “What about you?”

“M-Me?” Buffy dragged her eyes away from Giles hands; she'd been imagining them spanking her defenceless, pink bottom, plus she'd never noticed before what big hands Giles actually had.

“Are you all right?” Giles asked solicitously, “You seem a little distracted.”

“Oh!” Buffy laughed off Giles' concerns, “I'm just trying to remember something I needed to do is all.”

“So...?” Giles left the question hanging.

“So...?” Buffy looked at Giles with a slightly confused expression on her face before remembering what they'd been talking about, “Today!” Buffy smiled, “Yes, right...what am I doing today...RIGHT!” Buffy cried out as she finally got the images of Giles spanking her out of her mind and remembered what she was supposed to be doing today. “Yes, its the last intake of trainees final day today, so I'll be overseeing tests all day.”

“Oh good,” Giles nodded as he poured himself another cup of tea, “I'm glad you took my advice to take a more hands on approach to the girl's training.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, wishing Giles would take a more hands on approach with her, “its fun and this is the last intake before the summer break.”

Through August and into September the training side of Slayer Central closed down so that Xander and his work crews could repair any damage done by teenage slayers who hadn't learnt to control their strength yet. Closing the school also meant that the workmen could get on with their work without being pestered by super-strong, teenage, hormone bombs.

“You'll be taking them out tonight then?” Giles asked as he sipped his second cup of tea of the morning.

“Oh yeah,” taking the girls out on their end of training outing was one of Buffy's favourite things, “late night shopping, food and a movie at the Cleveland Shopping Centre, maybe go dancing; they've not decided what they want to do yet.”

“I'll expect the phone calls complaining about all the damage tomorrow morning then,” Giles sniggered from behind his tea cup.

“Oh that was one time, Giles,” Buffy replied eager to defend 'her' girls, “and there were extenuating circumstances.”

“Of course there were,” Giles stood up before clearing the table and putting everything that needed to go in the dish washer into its cavernous maw, “I'm taking the car to work this morning,” Giles, like Buffy, normally walked along the cliff top path to Slayer Central, “I need to go into South Shields later today, do you want a lift?”

“No thanks Giles,” Buffy got up from the table, “I'll walk.”

0=0=0=0

It was only a five minute walk along the cliff top path from Giles' house to the fence surrounding Slayer Central. However, Buffy liked to take the few minutes that the walk offered to marshal her thoughts before plunging back into the world of slayers and monsters. This morning it seemed she had a lot to think about, perhaps too much for one short walk. To begin with she needed to deal with her lusty feelings towards Giles. If they ever got out of hand it could ruin her relationship with him forever. Of course now there were these new lusty thoughts that involved Giles spanking her, just thinking about it made her feel...well...lusty!

The next thought that struck Buffy made her pause in mid step; weird she told herself as several pieces of information apparently slipped into place. This was really odd and if she didn't feel too embarrassed about talking to someone about it, she might mention it to Willow. First, Willow and Kennedy were heavily into all the bondage and whipping and spanking stuff. Buffy was pretty sure this had a lot to do with Willow still feeling guilty about turning to the 'dark side'. However, Buffy had also found out recently that, Dawn liked to have Faith chain her up. Buffy didn't know if Dawn liked to be spanked or not but... But now, she was having these really vivid imaginings of Giles spanking her; Buffy wondered if there might be something in the water, or, more likely, was there a spell involved somewhere?

Okay, yeah, Dawn had always got herself kidnapped and chained up in dark, dank caves. Then Buffy would rescue her and take her out for pizza and ice cream to help her get over the trauma. Buffy could see now how an impressionable teen could come to associate being chained up with something 'good', because her sister always rescued her and took her out and bought her stuff afterwards. Also, hadn't Willow complained that one time about everyone being spanked except her? Plus there was another thing, how come she was surrounded by lesbian couples (although Faith and Dawn sort of denied they were real lesbians as they only felt attracted to each other). Sighing, Buffy continued along the path. Perhaps she should get Willow to turn her gay again, find herself a girlfriend who was into all the spanking and bondage and start triple dating with her friends and family...they could have sex fueled, bondage orgies.

“Oh my god,” Buffy muttered, “what am I thinking?”

Finding herself at the cliff entrance to Slayer Central, Buffy looked up at the camera that watched the gate and waved. There was a buzz as the duty slayer unlocked the electronic lock and the gate swung slowly open. Walking onto the old holiday camp where Slayer Central had its home, Buffy looked up at the sky. As usual there was a fresh breeze coming in off the North Sea; she loved the smell of the fresh, salt air, it really helped her wake up in the morning. However, this morning the breeze wasn't so welcome. Turning and looking out over the silk-like grey sea she saw clouds on the horizon.

“Looks like rain,” she smiled; Buffy guessed that by the time the trainees were on the outdoors part of their tests it would be pouring down, “Good!” she said to herself as she headed along the path towards the admin block; if it was raining the trainees would really have to work to pass their fitness test.

0=0=0=0

Walking into the admin block Buffy called a cheery 'good morning' to the duty slayer who was still sitting at the reception desk waiting for the full-time receptionist to arrive. Walking along the corridor further into the block, Buffy went through the open door and into the main conference room. It'd had to be completely remodelled after it had been hit by a mortar bomb during an attack on the camp by religious fanatics. Xander had done a fantastic job getting all the repair work to the camp completed in only a couple of weeks; luckily the camp's insurance covered attacks by religiously motivated terrorists.

The memory of the attack reminded Buffy to find out what had happened to those defence lasers she'd ordered some weeks before. Too many people seemed to be able to just walk into Slayer Central and do what they pleased. If it wasn't people planting false evidence in her chalet or religious fanatics attacking the camp, it was CIA spies trying to steal her bathroom; it had to stop.

“Hi-de-Hi!” Willow greeted Buffy with a big grin on her face; Willow liked test days, they reminded her of school and she loved playing the school ma'am.

“Ho-de-Ho!” Buffy gave the traditional reply.

Buffy didn't know how the 'Hi-de-Hi/Ho-de-Ho' thing had got started; she had two theories. Either it was started by some of the first British girls to come to the camp or (and Buffy thought this more likely) it had been started by Dawn who appeared to have a deep love for old, British TV sitcoms. However it always started, within hours of a new intake of trainees turning up, Buffy found herself being greeted with cries of 'Hi-de-Hi, Ms Summers!' Buffy had tried to ignore the calls at first, but the girls had looked like kicked puppies when she didn't give the traditional reply of 'Ho-de-Ho'. Eventually she'd relented and joined in the 'fun'. As it turned out the 'Hi-de-Hi/Ho-de-Ho' greeting and reply had become a useful way for slayers to identify each other once they'd been released back into the wild. It also gave the young slayers (whatever their background) who'd gone through the Slayer Central training régime something in common, it was a little like a secret handshake.

Walking over to the coffee and doughnuts (another training day tradition), Buffy poured herself a cup of coffee before turning to look at her oldest and bestest friend in the whole wide world.

“You're looking disgustingly smug and pleased with yourself,” Buffy grinned before sipping her coffee and asking, “Kennedy get you pregnant yet?”

0=0=0=0

**Authors note:** Now you've got this far its time to come clean! The first two chapters of this story are sort of a 'Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer'; or me saying stuff about the characters and how the Slayer Organisation is run. Plus there are some thoughts on other stuff and how it affects the slayers. The death and destruction really starts in chapter three. 


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**Slayer Central, Saltburn-by-the-Sea.**

“So,” Buffy pulled out a chair and sat down, “how's the IVF treatment going for you?”

“Don't need it,” Willow smiled as she came to sit next to her old friend.

“I thought...” Buffy knew Willow had gone to some clinic in Edinburgh to get checked out, so she was dying to know what had happened.

“Look,” Willow began to explain, “IVF is really only for women who can't conceive naturally, so I don't need it.”

“So you can conceive normally?” Buffy asked; Willow had been worried that the dark magic she'd used might stop her from having children.

“Yep,” Willow smiled broadly, “I'm so fertile I might get pregnant just by looking at a guy too hard!”

“Gee,” Buffy replied uncertainly, “that's, like, good to hear, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Willow nodded, “all I really need now is a turkey baster, a cup and some...”

“'Stuff!' Please say 'stuff''!” Buffy begged her friend.

“Okay...” Willow replied slowly as she gave her friend a concerned look before concluding her sentence, “...some stuff.”

“Right,” Buffy nodded as she sipped her coffee, “so where are you going to get your 'stuff' from?”

“Like,” Willow sat back in her chair, “I could go to a 'stuff' bank,” Willow frowned at Buffy for not being able to come to terms with the word 'sperm', “or I could get a male friend to donate...” Willow paused for a moment, “...unfortunately I only have two male friends I'd feel comfortable about asking.”

“Only two?” Buffy answered Willow's frown with one of her own.

“Uh-huh,” Willow nodded, “there's only really Giles and Xander I'd ask, y'know?”

“Cool,” Buffy tried to sound positive, “they're both fine, upstanding guys, although 'upstanding' might not have been the best choice of words, I'm sure they'll donate, Will.”

“Yeah but who do I ask?” Willow wanted to know, “I mean if I ask one and not the other...”

“Why not ask them both?” Buffy suggested, “Then you could chose randomly or maybe mix their 'stuff' together and get the best from them both!”

“I don't think it works like that, Buffy,” Willow explained gently, she hated correcting Buffy when she got all excited about something.

“Oh, yeah,” Buffy smiled at her own foolishness, “getting carried away there.”

“I don't know,” Willow's face was screwed up in indecision, “I mean, Xander is handsome and strong and good with his hands an'all, but Giles is clever as well as being handsome and brave...”

“And don't forget the Ripper thing,” Buffy pointed out, “any little Giles' wouldn't get his or her lunch money stolen at school.”

“Yeah there is that,” Willow nodded, “but he's sorta old and his little guys might not be able to swim far enough to, you know, make out with my eggs.”

“Or they might get there and be too tired to do anything,” Buffy pointed out; in all her fantasies about herself and Giles being a couple, she'd never considered having children with him. “What does Kennedy say, you've obviously talked to her about it.”

“Oh,” Willow crossed her arms grumpily across her chest, “she's no help at all! She doesn't care who the father is, she just wants me to get pregnant as soon as possible.”

“Sounds like she's looking forward to the sound of baby broomsticks more than you,” Buffy pointed out.

“You wouldn't believe it,” Willow shook her head.

“I bet I would,” Buffy smirked; the truth was that once Kennedy had an idea in her head she could get a little intense about it.

“She's picking out stuff...and I don't mean _stuff_ -stuff, for the nursery, and strollers and outfits and toys and what sort of diapers we'll use and cots and educational toys...”

“Educational toys?” Buffy interrupted before Willow ran out of air, “Isn't baby Rosenberg a little young for educational toys?”

“Yeah, like not even conceived yet,” Willow said with a sigh, “she's even started to look for schools close by, she keeps muttering that no child of hers is being sent away to boarding school.”

“Poor, Will,” Buffy laughed, “but she means well.”

“Yeah I know,” Willow shrugged, “I just wish...”

“I think I do,” Buffy took one of Willow's hands in her own a squeezed it reassuringly, “she's just excited.”

“Buffy,” Willow looked at Buffy with a very serious look on her face, “I've come to a decision...I know I've known Xander for most of my life and he's a real nice guy an'all, but...”

“But?” Buffy prompted.

“Genetically and intellectually I don't think he's really 'dad' material,” Willow looked sadder than Buffy had seen her look in a long time, “so I've decided, I want Giles to be my baby-donator!”

“You do?” for some reason Buffy felt very proud that 'her' Giles had been chosen over Xander, nice though Xander was.

“You won't tell him will you Buffy?” Willow asked urgently.

“Who? What?” Buffy gave her friend a confused look, “I think we'll have to otherwise how do we get his 'stuff' out of him?” Buffy thought about this for a moment, “I mean we could drug him and...”

“No!” Willow cried as she looked heavenward, “No, I mean not telling Xander I chose Giles over him.”

“Oooh,” Buffy nodded and tried to look serious, “yeah I get that...”

“And then there's how do I actually ask Giles for some of his 'stuff'...” Willow looked at Buffy in exasperation, “...can't we be grown up about this and say 'sperm'?”

“If you really want to,” Buffy shivered, not exactly with disgust, but close to it; which was odd because it wasn't like she was a stranger to 'stuff' (she still called it that in her head) she'd had boyfriends and various different types of sex and everything.

“Could you ask him for me?” Willow pleaded.

“Wow! Will...” now there was a conversation Buffy had never imagined herself having; 'Hi Giles, Willow wants to borrow some of your 'stuff' so she can get pregnant'; Buffy realised that she'd need to polish that a little. “Hey! Look at the time!” Buffy glanced up at the conference room clock, grateful to be able to change the subject, “We better go get ready to put the girls through their paces.”

0=0=0=0

The 'End of Course' tests were organised so that the written work was done in the morning while most of the physical part of the test was done in the afternoon. In the morning the trainee slayers sat a one-and-a-half hour multiple choice paper covering everything they'd been taught on their three week visit to Slayer Central. Originally the slayer induction course was only two weeks long, but Willow had lobbied successfully for it to be increased to three weeks, she'd really wanted it to be four weeks long. But, that would mean they'd either have to take on more staff or conduct fewer courses, either way the organisation's budget would be stretched.

The morning tests included; demon recognition and the best ways to kill them. Basic first aid, how to get demon goo and blood out of your favourite blouse or the pair of jeans you'd just bought. Because slayers usually ended up living alone or with another slayer the girls were also taught the basics of 'good housekeeping', cooking and a certain amount of DIY so they could change a plug, repair their weapons and whittle a stake without having to run to the nearest guy for help. The Slayer Organisation wanted its slayers to be as independent and self reliant as possible.

After the tests there would be a short break before the girls started on their more practical tests. While Willow covered things like first aid, Buffy checked out the girl's combat skills. As there were only seven girls on this course, Buffy and Willow were able to go through their checks quickly and advise any of the girls who still needed to improve on how they should go about it once they'd left Slayer Central. 

Lastly in the forty-five minutes or so before lunch the gloves really came off. Buffy and Willow would try to explain to the girls what it was really like fighting the forces of evil, and how they'd probably be doing it for the rest of their lives. This was the part of the morning that Buffy hated as she told these fresh faced young women that they would probably never be able to marry and have a family. That in truth they probably wouldn't live to a ripe old age and that they were likely to die in some smelly alleyway somewhere and no one would ever know how brave they'd been or what they'd sacrificed.

As Buffy looked at the faces of the girls sitting around the conference table, she saw the same reactions as she usually did. One or two girls would be sitting there deep in thought as they realised what their lives were going to be like. Some would decide there and then that the life of a slayer was not for her, Buffy was always surprised that only about three girls had ever just got up and walked out at that point. She was also amazed that all three girls had come back and finished their tests and a few weeks later died bravely fighting the forces of evil.

Mostly the girls looked back at her with the same expression on their faces, it said; what does she know? She's old not like me, I'll never make the same mistakes that she has, it won't happen to me! Of course Buffy knew it would, unless these girls found something 'normal' to live for most of them would be dead by the time they were twenty-five or thirty, that's why she liked the older trainees. These were the women who'd come into their powers when they'd already got jobs and families. These women were more careful than their younger sisters. They had something to live for, something to keep them in this world and prevent them from succumbing to the slayer death-wish that affected far too many of the younger girls.

“Okay,” Buffy gave the girls a tired smile, “now I think Miss Rosenberg and myself have depressed you enough for one day.” Buffy glanced at Willow for a moment before concluding her little lecture, “Don't forget you're all coming out with me for a run this afternoon. So, have a light lunch and be on the sports field at one-thirty in your running gear, okay? Hi-de-Hi!”

“HO-DE-HO!” chorused the girls as they all got up and headed eagerly for the canteen.

“I wonder if we do any good, Will,” Buffy asked as she watched the last of her girls leave the room.

“It's best that they know everything from the start,” Willow replied, “it may not do any good now, but in a couple of years maybe some of them will realise what you were talking about.”

“I hope so, Will,” Buffy sighed, “I truly hope so.”

0=0=0=0

Glancing at her watch and then up at the sky, Buffy waited for the last couple of girls to come and join her on the sports field. So far the weather had remained dry, but now the clouds had blown in off the sea and looked heavy with rain, some time very soon the heavens would open and it would pour down.

“Right!” Buffy called as she jogged on the spot, “I'm glad to see you could all make it...” the girls giggled as the tail-enders joined the group. “This afternoon we're going on a little ten mile run...” the girls gave a collective groan, running was _so_ uncool, “...first we'll run along the beach to Cowbar. When we're there we'll climb the cliff and run back along the Cleveland Way.”

The Cleveland Way was a national footpath and nature trail that ran for one-hundred-and-ten miles along the North Sea coast. At the Saltburn-by-the-Sea end it ran between the cliffs and Slayer Central's perimeter fence.

“Once we get back to Slayer Central,” Buffy continued with malicious joy, “you'll be going over the assault course, just for old times sake!”

The girls groaned even louder at the piece of news, the infamous Slayer Central Assault Course, was fiendishly devised to to test all of a slayer's physical abilities, particularly after finishing a tough ten mile run.

“Okay, ladies,” Buffy stood with hands on hips radiating a disgusting amount of vim and vigour with an extra large helping of 'pep' on top, “follow me!”

With ill concealed disgust and with much muttering that questioned Buffy's parentage, the girls ran after Buffy across the playing fields. They went out of the 'Cliff Gate' and down the path to the beach. It was only then that most of the girls remembered that there wasn't any actual beach from just south of the old holiday camp. There was in fact an area of jumbled rocks between the sea and the cliff which turned a relatively easy run along the sand into a mixture of rock climbing and running over rough ground.

When Buffy had originally worked out the fitness program for the trainee slayers (with the help of a slayer called Maggie, who'd been in the British Army), she'd been surprised that although a slayer could sprint at speeds of up to fifty miles-an-hour, they weren't very good at distance running. Looking back at her own career, Buffy realised that even she hadn't found it necessary to run for more than two or three miles and then it had been over mostly smooth, firm going.

The run went about as Buffy had expected, at first there was a lot of complaining but the girls soon settled down and saved their breath for running and climbing over the rocks. At Cowbar, Buffy called a short halt before leading the girls up the cliff face. Puffing and panting a little the girls made their way up to the cliff top. Waiting for the last girl to finish her climb, Buffy turned north and led them back towards Slayer Central, it was only then that it started to rain.

The rain was coming down in sheets as Buffy led the slayers back into Slayer Central and over to the Assault Course. The assault course had been built by Xander and some of his building buddies out of concrete, wood and scaffolding. It was about seventy feet high at its tallest point and nearly half a mile long. There were walls to climb over, tunnels to crawl through and gaps to jump. Some were high up on the scaffolding part of the course that would have given the toughest special forces troopers pause for thought; others were at ground level and full of water. But, the part that Buffy liked the most was the last hundred metres or so. 

This had been built in a ditch that was normally half full of dirty, muddy water even on a dry day. Today with the rain lashing down out of a dark grey sky, the water almost came to the top of the ditch which made it about five feet deep. Although the ditch was full of obstacles, everything from barbed wire entanglements to under water tunnels, it wasn't that hard for a young, fit, slayer to get through. What this part of the course did was to test a slayers willingness to get really wet and dirty. The truth was that almost all slayers were fifteen to sixteen year old girls who'd spent most of their lives trying _not_ to get wet and dirty and by everything that was holy that water was _really_ , disgustingly, dirty.

Standing at the end of the ditch, Buffy yelled encouragement to the girls as they climbed the last obstacle, a twelve foot high wooden 'damn' that had few hand or footholds and was extremely slippery in the rain. Smiling like a proud mother, Buffy watched as the last girl climbed up on to the damn and lined up on the bank with her sister slayers.

“Well done,” Buffy called as the rain beat down forcing the filthy ditch water out of the girl's clothes and replacing it with freezing rain water. “I think I can safely say that you all passed with flying colours...so go get showered and changed and I'll see you in the canteen for tea and medals!”

0=0=0=0

Before tea in the camp canteen, Buffy gave a short speech telling the girls how proud she was of them and how they were all slayers now, but not to let it go to their heads. Finally as the girls devoured their tea, Buffy and Willow moved amongst them and gave each girl her slayer handbook and her medallion that showed she'd completed her basic slayer training successfully. On the cover of the handbook in large, friendly letters were the words 'Don't Die!', while inside the cover was an envelope detailing the areas where every girl could improve. At the end of their tea, Willow announced that the girls should get themselves prettied up and be ready to go out with Buffy for their end of course treat at the Cleveland Centre.

“You coming with tonight?” Buffy asked Willow as they stood watching the girls head on back to their rooms.

“No,” Willow smiled and shook her head, “I'll leave that to those who have slayer stamina, I'm going to curl up in front of the fire with my very own warm, snuggly slayer!”

“Hey,” Buffy grinned, “you might find that partying the night away with the girls is more restful!”

“Whatever,” Willow sighed, “I'm off home if you don't need me for anything else?”

“No, you're okay,” Buffy walked with Willow towards the door, “you go home, I'll see you in the morning.”

Watching Willow walk off untouched by the rain that poured from her magic umbrella, Buffy smiled before looking at her watch. If she timed it right she'd just have time to shower, change into her party clothes _and_ do some paper work before taking the girls to the Cleveland Centre.

0=0=0=0

**The Cleveland Centre.**

Deep underground in the deepest of the underground car park levels an inter-dimensional portal opened. It only took a minute or two to stabilise, but when it did something evil appeared out of the portal. It stood and surveyed the deserted car park even though it had no eyes to see. The Moon Beast was about the same height as a human, greyish-white in colour with slimy looking skin. It looked something like a giant, obscene toad, however instead of eyes it had a mass of short tentacles that writhed in the air just above its wide mouth. For weapons it had a mouth full of shark-like teeth and wicked looking talons on its fingers and toes. Stepping to one side it allowed another of its kind to follow it through the portal. Both creatures stood there as they waited for their slaves to appear through the portal and join them. Tonight the hunting would be good.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Buffy's office, Slayer Central.**

Sighing with relief, Buffy slumped down in her big, leather, director's chair and closed her eyes for just a minute. Opening them again she looked around her office and remembered all the weird stuff that had happened there; CIA agents attempting to steal her executive bathroom. Strange Indian cultists who'd been trying to sacrifice her sister to their goddess and managing to cover the walls and carpet in red paint. Life as the senior slayer and head of the Slayer Organisation was certainly 'interesting'; it might kill her, but she'd never get bored. A smile came to her face, she'd almost forgotten. If she turned the controls on her shower in a set sequence, it would open a magic portal to some strange reality; she had to be the only woman in the world who had to take a sword into the shower along with her soap, shampoo and conditioner.

Next Buffy looked down at her outfit for the evening. The newly minted slayers had chosen what their end of course treat was going to be. Tonight they'd be going to the Pink Dragon nightclub where there was going to be a 'School Disco'. Buffy had needed the concept of a school disco explaining to her. It seemed that, once upon a time, in a lot of British, state run, schools the authorities ran 'discos' either at lunch time or in the early evening after school. This was all part of a plan to keep young teenagers occupied so they wouldn't cause mischief elsewhere. However the 'school discos' that were run in nightclubs were more an excuse for young women to dress up as naughty St Trinians schoolgirls and the guys to dress up as...well Buffy wasn't too sure what the guys dressed up as. No doubt she'd find out tonight.

Then there was the problem of getting a bunch of fifteen or sixteen year old girls into a nightclub that was strictly 'over eighteen'. Handily, Buffy had had occasion to kill a couple of vampires who'd been about to chow down on the club's owner. It'd been reasonably easy to come to an arrangement with the nightclub owner to allow access for the younger slayers. As long as there were adult slayers present to keep an eye on the younger girls and the young slayers kept to soft drinks, the owner was happy to let them in. Personally, Buffy thought that the choice of venue was more to do with the teen-slayers wanting to see the 'Great Ms Summers' dressed up like a refugee from a St Trinians film. Whatever, Buffy sighed as she pushed the imaginings of what she'd really like to be doing with Giles to one side (these thoughts included Giles as the strictest of principals spanking her to within an inch of her life!).

Checking the clock on her wall, Buffy saw that she had plenty of time to do some paperwork. Now there was something, no one (not even Giles) had mentioned; just how much paperwork was involved with running a world wide organisation. First of all there were the numbers. With a world population in the region of seven billion of which about three-point-five billion were female. Even the tiny percentage that were slayers or prospective slayers (the old Potential Slayer thing had been dropped due to all potentials now being guaranteed to become slayers), the actual numbers were still huge. It was something like ten percent of ten percent of ten percent of ten percent of ten percent; which gave a figure in the region of thirty-five-thousand. Of these about ten thousand were too old to fight or weren't interested in joining the Organisation. Another ten thousand were too young and perhaps one percent had turned to a life of crime. This still left fifteen-thousand slayers worldwide who were actively fighting evil. Of course these numbers were always increasing as the number of slayers being killed or dying of old age was less, not by much, but still less than the number of new slayers coming into their powers.

Shaking her head as she shuffled through her papers, Buffy wished that Willow had been able to refine her spell a little more. Willow had said that every 'girl' who could be a slayer was now a slayer. The problem had been the word 'girl'. It seemed that Willow had made just a tiny mistake in translation or something. For girl read 'female'. So it came as something of a shock to find a lot of Slayer-grannies walking around the block beating up on the local gang-bangers, be they human or not so human.

Next there was the shortage of watchers; no way could each slayer have her own watcher. Even at one watcher for every ten girls; that still meant that Buffy needed to find one-and-a-half-thousand _completely_ trustworthy, highly educated men and women who believed in the supernatural and didn't feel the need to wear tinfoil hats.

After all these problems, the actual number of personnel wasn't the greatest problem of all. No fiend from the deepest depths of hell could hope to compete with this truly horrific and terrifying entity...Buffy was of course referring to **money**. Without it nothing could be done and there never seemed to be enough of it to go around. Even with the helping hand Kennedy's father had given the organisation in the early days, even with the funds they'd obtained from the old Council's accounts (which hadn't been anywhere near as large as they'd all assumed, it seemed that the Council of Watchers had been affected by the inflation of the 70's just like everyone else). They only had just enough money to run Slayer Central and pay themselves barely adequate salaries. If it hadn't been for things like Giles having a 'large' win on the National Lottery: herself receiving a substantial amount of compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned and Kennedy refusing to accept any payment while paying all of Willow's expenses out of her father's pocket, things would be a lot tougher than they were.

This was one of the reasons that over the last eighteen months or so, the Slayer Organisation had been opening training and headquarter facilities all over the world. At the moment there was only one per continent, with the one in Saltburn-by-the-Sea dealing with Britain and Europe. They'd found it impossible to take in all the girls who'd needed training so the decision had been made to spread the load. Of course because of the lack of money and suitable personnel, each 'Slayer House' had to be more or less self financing and governing, this was where that other bane of Buffy's life reared its ugly head, **politics**. A lot of countries in the world didn't like their nationals leaving the country. There were disturbing rumours coming out of China and what had happened to any North Korean slayers was anyone's guess. Not that the so-called 'free' nations of the world were any better, they were just more subtle.

Lastly, Buffy's troubles wouldn't be complete without at least mentioning the third member of the Terrible Triumvirate... **religion**. You'd think that organisations that claimed they were fighting evil would be some of the Organisation's fiercest backers; but you'd be wrong. The problem, as Buffy saw it, was that the vast majority of people involved with the Slayer Organisation and one-hundred percent of the slayers were all missing a 'Y' chromosome. This little fact, of course, made them totally incapable of running anything including their own lives. There were a lot of men with silly beards and even sillier invisible friends out there who didn't like being told what to do by 'uppity' females. Not that she was going to paint all religious organisations with the same brush, some of them had been more than helpful over the last few years, but in general they seemed to be there to make her life more difficult than it needed to be. In fact some appeared to be working for the opposition.

0=0=0=0

Tossing a report from the South African house back onto her desk, Buffy sat back in her seat and sighed long and hard. Perhaps one day, maybe in two or three hundred years time, it would all be sorted out and on that day there'd be a fly past of pigs to celibate, hell would freeze over and all demons would take up flower arranging.

Glancing up at her clock again, Buffy saw she'd been sitting there for more than an hour, it was nearly time to go collect the girls and head on out for a night of high-jinx and too much dancing. Was it even possible to have too much dancing, Buffy asked herself as she stood up and checked her outfit in the full length mirror by the door. Deciding she was the hottest, naughty schoolgirl ever, she had to stamp down hard as her mind wandered off to a place where she was bending over Giles' lap having her bottom spanked to a warm, cherry red. This, she told herself was getting too much and tomorrow she was going to get Willow to check that she'd not had some kind of kinky love spell put on her.

Telling herself to stop daydreaming, Buffy checked that her stockings were straight and she didn't have too many buttons on her blouse undone before switching out the light and heading off down the corridor to meet the girls in reception. From there she'd drive the girls in the school minibus down to the Cleveland Centre where the fun could begin.

0=0=0=0

**The A172 Near Middlesbrough.**

Kathy Mann hadn't really wanted to drive all the way to Thirsk, where her mother lived, but it was 'urgent', or so her mother had claimed. Kathy's husband was away working on a North Sea gas rig and none of her friends were available to drive her. You see, she was about eight and a half months pregnant and found it hard to squeeze behind the steering wheel of her small car. Driving along the A172, she'd been half heartedly cursing her mother for calling her over, it probably was nothing that couldn't have waited, but it was her mum. Suddenly a car had driven out of a side road and slammed into the driver's side of Kathy's car trapping her inside. Waking up, with her legs trapped under the steering wheel, Kathy still had the where-with-all to phone the emergency services on her mobile. It wasn't until after she'd hung up that she noticed that her water had broken.

0=0=0=0

Pulling her ambulance over to the side of the road, Dawn watched as the firefighters started to secure the scene of the accident. Jumping out of the vehicle, she ran around to the rear door arriving at the same time as George, her paramedic for the night. Opening up the big rear door, Dawn climbed inside and helped George with his trauma bag before following him over to the site of the RTA. Taking in the scene, Dawn saw the woman trapped in the car as George tried to reach inside to begin treating the woman while the Fire Brigade made the car safe.

“Dawn,” George looked up at Dawn from the driver's side window, “we better stabilise her neck and head before we do anything else.”

Dawn took a neck brace from the trauma kit and went to help her partner.

“Damn,” George sighed as he tried to reach through to the victim, “it's just a bit tight in there.”

“Look, I'm small enough to climb in,” Dawn volunteered.

“You sure?” George replied.

“Sure I'm sure,” Dawn grinned, this was why she'd joined the ambulance service, to help people.

“Okay lass,” George smiled back at her, “it might be easier from t'other side.”

Running around the smashed car, Dawn had one of the firefighters smash the windows on that side before she climbed into the back seat. Shuffling across the car until she was behind the trapped woman, Dawn gently lifted the woman's head so she could fit the collar.

“George!” Dawn called urgently, she'd just looked down into the woman's lap and had seen blood, “I think she's haemorrhaging.”

“Okay, we'll need to put an IV into her arm,” George replied calmly, “you know how to do an IV don't you Lass?”

“Yep,” Dawn nodded as she turned to accept the bag of fluid off her partner.

Almost panicking when she couldn't find a vein, Dawn eventually managed to get the needle into the woman's arm and started to squeeze the bag and pump the clear IV fluid into the woman. While she was doing this the firefighters got their hydraulic cutters ready to cut the roof off the car and release the woman. As soon as Dawn had the woman as stabilised as she was likely to get her the firefighters got to work with their cutters. In only took a couple of minutes for them to get the roof off and were soon working to free the woman's legs.

As soon as the Kathy was free they had her on a stretcher and in the back of the ambulance where George could work on her properly. After closing the doors, Dawn ran around to the front of her vehicle and jumped inside. Sitting behind the steering wheel she stripped off her latex gloves before starting the motor. Putting the ambulance into gear she pulled away as she hit the buttons that started the two-tone sirens screaming. Middlesbrough hospital was only about ten minutes away, as she weaved between the traffic, Dawn told herself this was going to be a good night; she'd already helped to save two lives and her shift had hardly begun.

0=0=0=0

**The Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough.**

The slayers didn't actually stop screaming until after Buffy had parked the bus and switched off the engine. As soon as she had the screaming was replaced by a lot of giggling; Buffy turned to glare over the back of the driver's seat at her passengers.

“My driving isn't that bad!” she informed them, “In fact its way better since I did that advanced driving course.”

“If you say so Ms Summers,” Emily, one of the older slayers (she was nearly seventeen) replied with a grin, Buffy could tell the girl didn't really mean what she was saying.

“Hey look next time I'll get Faith to drive!” Buffy threatened, this announcement was received with renewed screams of faux terror.

Faith was a very safe driver, in fact you could say she was a frighteningly safe driver. Apart from her almost mystical ability to drive to the speed limit while making it seem like she was breaking everyone of them. What she could do with just about anything on wheels didn't bear thinking about and would probably have given the designers fits.

“Alright,” Buffy said in her very best 'school ma'am' voice (the effect was spoilt by her being dressed as a schoolgirl complete with freckles and pig-tails), “lets calm down and be on our best behaviour, okay?”

“Yes Miss,” the girls replied as they tried to get a grip on their excitement; which was probably more to do with actually being able to go out with 'Miss Buffy' than the prospect of dancing the night away in a night club.

“Okay that's better,” Buffy tried her best to be a responsible adult on nights like this, “lets totally review the rules again,” this announcement was met by a chorus of teen groans. “You will at all times conduct yourselves in a totally proper manner. There will be no dragging boys off to dark corners however cute they might be...and that goes for vampires as well. You will not leave the club without first getting my permission and finally and most importantly there will be no alcohol consumed by anyone at anytime, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Miss,” came the rather reluctant reply.

“Good,” Buffy smiled, “now within the limits described you're to have a good time, we'll meet in front of the ladies restroom at one-thirty, okay?”

“Yes Miss,” if anything this answer was more down beat than the first, Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes in much the same way as her charges were doing right now.

“Okay,” Buffy called brightly, “lets move and have some fun!”

0=0=0=0

Leading her girls up out of the underground car park and into the Centre proper, Buffy couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Putting these feelings of impending doom down to the probability that at some point in the evening she was going to have to explain to the police why one of her charges was drunk and incapable; she'd deal with that when it happened. Coming out into the brightly lit shopping centre, Buffy was unsurprised to see so many people out and about. After all it was nine o'clock on a Friday night and the shops stayed open until ten. The Cleveland Centre was built on two main levels. On the ground floor were the shops with a good selection of clothing stores plus the usual collection of coffee shops and health and beauty stores.

On what in Britain was called the first floor there was a multiplex cinema, various food outlets, the Pink Dragon nightclub and a small pub; Buffy pointed to the pub as all her girls joined her near the top of the escalator on the upper level.

“See that?” Buffy pointed to the door leading into the fake, 'olde worlde' pub, “None of you will be going in there tonight, understand?”

There was a lot of nodding and 'Yes Miss-ing' as more than one girl looked wistfully at the pub door.

“Good, I'm glad we totally understand each other,” Buffy hid a smirk before leading her party over to the night club.

Walking to the front of the queue, Buffy went to talk with one of the 'bouncers' on the door. After a few words the man checked the list on the clipboard in his hand and nodded. Walking back to her girls again, Buffy led them to the front of the queue and into the club.

0=0=0=0

Standing just inside the club, Buffy listened to the loud music as she watched the flashing lights and dancing people. Just for a moment she felt very old; but on the plus side she couldn't feel the presence of any vampires or other denizens of the night. Turning to her girls, who were still standing close as if they were fearful of going out onto the dance floor, Buffy made shooing gestures with her hands.

“Go on!” she said loud enough to be heard over the music, “Go and have some fun and leave your poor old auntie Buffy to sit in the corner by herself and nurse a glass of Coke all night.

There was a slight hesitation as the girls decided what to do, in seconds Buffy found herself standing by herself.

“Gee thanks guys,” Buffy muttered to herself as she pushed her way towards the bar.

Once there, Buffy got herself a Coke, no alcohol for her...one drink was too many and ten were never enough. Having fought the Demon Alcohol once in her life she'd no wish to do it again, one step at a time, she told herself. After paying for her drink, Buffy turned and rested her back against the bar as she scanned the club. As no threats leapt out at her she was just about to try and find a place to sit down when she sensed someone come and stand next to her. Turning she saw a handsome, tall guy who looked like he was dressed as some sort of sports coach smiling down at her.

“A twenty ton Polar bear,” he said out of the blue.

“What!?” Buffy replied thinking this must be the weirdest pick up line in the world, or, the guy was actually looking for a really heavy polar bear, in her life either option was possible.

“A twenty ton polar bear,” the guy repeated with a smile, “if that doesn't break the ice nothing will!”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**The Cleveland Centre.**

Stepping out of the travel tube that had brought him up from the transport module storage area, Group Leader Jafs found himself in a trading area of some kind. Stepping to one side to allow the small-group of fighters out of the transport tube, he gazed around at all the sacrifices, some of whom were beginning to take notice of himself and his fighters. Gesturing with his right hand he called the small-group commander over to him.

“Seal the main exits,” Jafs commanded, “prevent any of the sacrifices from leaving.”

“I obey,” the small-group leader bowed slightly before leading his fighters off towards the exits.

“Communications?” Jafs turned to the fighter who carried his communications array, “Contact Under-Leader Wengo and tell her to bring the rest of the raiding force through the portal.”

“I obey,” the communications fighter nodded before turning away and passing on his leader's instructions.

Looking around, Jafs noted that he and his men had become the centre of attention for quite a crowd of sacrifices. He noticed two sacrifices in what were obviously some sort of uniform push their way through the crowd and walk towards him. The taller of the two said something in what had to be the local language, Jafs shrugged under his body armour. He didn't understand these primitive's gruntings and even if he had he'd have paid them little notice. Pulling his side arm from the holster on his hip he shot the two uniformed sacrifices.

The sacrifices screamed in agony as they slowly disintegrated in front of his eyes. Smiling Jafs heard the Overlords whisper into his mind, 'More'. Pleased that the Overlords were amused by his actions, he turned his weapon on the panicking mob who were just now realising that their lives were forfeit. After gunning down several of the locals he heard them scream and watched them writhing in excruciating agony as their bodies were slowly consumed by the lethal, corrosive energy produced by his weapon. Jafs smiled in satisfaction as the Overlords once again whispered their approval into his mind. 

Turning towards the travel tube as the door opened behind him, Jafs nearly shot Under-Leader Wengo as she stepped from the tube followed by her personnel guards.

“I see you've started already,” Wengo smiled as she gestured to the smouldering bodies lying on the floor not five steps away.

“I serve the Overlords,” Jafs explained holstering his weapon.

“As do we all,” Wengo inclined her head to her superior, looking up again she glanced around at the structure they were in, she could already hear weapon's fire and the screams of the sacrifices as they died for the Overlord's pleasure. “Standard procedures?”

“Of course,” Jafs nodded, “bring the adolescent females and males here along with any children you might find, the rest can be killed.”

“Torture?” Wengo asked, she smiled as she heard another burst of firing and the screams of more sacrifices as they died slowly and in extreme pain.

“Only after the building is secure and all the remaining sacrifices have been captured and subdued,” Jafs replied.

“Good,” Wengo nodded to her Leader again adding “I obey,” she lead her guards up the moving stairs to the upper level.

0=0=0=0

**The Pink Dragon Nightclub.**

The guy's name was Adam, he was tall and handsome and funny and Buffy liked him, perhaps one day soon she might get to love him. They'd danced a little but mostly they'd sat in a quiet corner of the club and talked.

“...so you're a teacher?” Adam asked.

“Sort of,” Buffy nodded as she sipped her coke through a straw, “I work at the adventure training school, y'know the one?”

“Where the old holiday camp used to be?” Adam replied, “Odd name that, The Slayer Adventure Training School.”

“It's named after our founder, Dr Horatio Slayer,” Buffy repeated the well used cover story, the same one that was on the internet.

“Never heard of him,” Adam admitted with a shrug.

“No you probably wouldn't, he's American,” Buffy went on to explain a little of the fictitious man's principles and how he'd been an outspoken believer in women's rights back in the early 1900's, “So, what do you do?” Buffy asked wanting to get off the subject of Horatio Slayer and she knew that guys liked to talk about themselves.

“Erm,” Adam hesitated for just a moment, “I sort of work for the government...”

“Very mysterious,” Buffy grinned, “what are you, a spy?”

“No,” Adam shook his head sadly, “nothing so glamorous...”

“Oh, come on then tell me,” Buffy smiled brightly, “or would you have to kill me if you did?”

“No, no its nothing like that,” Adam sighed; he knew exactly where this would lead, as soon as he told this very attractive young woman what he did for a living she'd make her excuses, get up and walk away and he'd never see her again. “I...I work for HM Customs and Revenue...”

Sitting there Buffy took a thoughtful sip of coke and frowned, HM Customs and Revenue, that was like the IRS in the States.

“Hey!” Buffy cried, “You're a tax man, right?”

“Guilty as charged,” Adam admitted, “you can leave now if you like.”

“Why would I want to leave?” Buffy asked just as realisation hit, “Oh I get it, most girls don't want to...”

“You don't mind?” Adam asked in near shock.

“No,” Buffy shook her head; why should she mind the guy was only doing his job, if people didn't pay their taxes nothing would work.

“Marry me!” Adam slipped off the low stool he'd been sitting on and went down on one knee clutching one of Buffy's hands to his chest.

“Hey!” Buffy frowned down at the guy, he looked so serious she wasn't sure whether he was joking or not; she decided to act as if it was all a joke. “That's just a little fast don't you think? First dates are supposed to be for getting to know each other and perhaps a goodnight kiss. Second date is dinner and a movie followed by maybe some heavy petting, and the third date is...” Buffy grinned, “...well, what happens on the third date depends on dates one and two.”

“Oh I see,” Adam got up off his knee and let go of Buffy's hand, “you're an old fashioned girl who expects at least three dates before accepting any proposals of marriage?”

“Sorry,” Buffy leaned forward and touched Adam's hand; as she did her eyes locked with his and she started to hear the orchestra in her mind start to get louder and louder.

There was something about him that attracted Buffy like a moth to a flame, gazing into his eyes she moved her lips closer to his and then just as their lips were about to touch and Buffy was thinking that perhaps she could take the first and second dates as read. Something stopped her, something at the back of her brain jogged her arm and said, 'Danger, Buffy Summers, danger!'.

“Did you hear that?” Buffy asked as she stopped only an inch from Adam's lips.

“Hear what?” Adam blinked and saw how close he'd been to kissing Buffy's lips; he also realised that he'd not be kissing this enchanting young woman's lips today or at anytime in the future.

“That,” Buffy listened as she stood up and tried to block out the sound of the music and of people having fun.

Adam couldn't hear anything, which wasn't surprising; he didn't have slayer ears.

“Wait here,” Buffy gestured to Adam, “I've got to check something out.”

Yeah, right, Adam's shoulders slumped, it was always the same, as soon as he told a girl what he did for a living she'd up and leave him; perhaps he should start to pretend that he _was_ a spy. After only taking a couple of paces towards the door, Buffy stopped and turned around, she retraced her steps to where Adam was standing looking a little sorry for himself.

“Adam!” Buffy called over the sound of the music; she saw him turn towards her hopefully, “I will be back, I promise...I just gotta...” Buffy pointed hopelessly towards the door, of course she couldn't explain, she didn't know how to even begin, casting caution to the wind she stepped up to Adam, put her arms around his neck and gave him a strength six (possibly strength seven) kiss. “Look I'll be back...” she turned to head towards the door, “...I promise!”

Feeling just a little hot and 'unnecessary', Buffy made her way towards the door. The main entrance to the club was situated at the bottom of a flight of stairs where there was a sort of lobby which opened onto the food court and the entrance of the multiplex. Getting a stamp on her left hand from the female bouncer/door-woman at the top of the stairs, Buffy made her way down to the lobby. The stairs didn't go straight down of course, there was a landing half way down where the stairs turned through ninety degrees. Halting on the landing, Buffy cautiously looked around the corner to see the bodies of the two bouncers who guarded the entrance and the young woman, who took the entrance fee, lying on the floor.

Stifling a groan of disappointment, yet another night ruined by death and destruction, Buffy made her way down the stairs. At the foot of the steps she pressed herself up against the wall and peeped around the corner of the open door to get a look at the outside world. What she saw didn't exactly fill her heart with joy, from her position behind the door, Buffy could see at least half a dozen burnt and smouldering corpses lying on the floor of the food court.

“Damn,” she cursed quietly, before going to examine the body of the bouncer closest to her.

The corpse was like nothing she'd seen before and to be honest, Buffy had seen more or less everything by now. The body, Buffy was fairly sure, had belonged to one of the male bouncers, or at least what was left of it had. It had been twisted into an unnatural shape as if the guy had been in extraordinary pain when he'd died. It also looked very much as if his body had been eaten up by acid or something. Anyway, there wasn't much blood and the wounds all appeared to have been cauterized. Standing up, Buffy was just in time to see a young man running towards the door of the club, his panicking eyes locked with hers for just a second.

“RUN!” He yelled, “THEY'RE KILLING EVERYAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

There was a weird whooshing-whining sound just before the young guy started to scream as he was slowly consumed by what Buffy could only think was invisible fire. Gasping in horror, Buffy hurled herself back into the cover of the lobby as the young man's corpse crashed to a smouldering halt just inside the club.

This was just her luck, Buffy thought angrily as she hitched up her skirt and pulled her mobile phone from the waistband of her panties (she wasn't carrying a bag and her uniform only had one small pocket and that already had her wallet and the minibus keys in it). Pressing the button that would put her through to the duty slayer she lifted the phone to her ear...and heard nothing. Looking at the screen of her phone she saw the message every young, modern, woman dreaded seeing, 'No Signal'!

“Damn-it!” Buffy hissed as she stuffed her useless phone back into her panties.

Obviously there was something really bad going on and she guessed that it wouldn't take long for whoever was shooting people with weird guns, or whatever, to come and check the nightclub out; she had to get everyone out, but they couldn't go out through the main door. Casting about hoping to see something that might give her a clue as to what to do, Buffy's eyes fell on the fire alarm on the opposite wall. It was a risk, but one she felt worth taking as long as she could prevent people from running out the front door.

Not feeling the presence of anything evil close by, Buffy stepped over the body of the dead bouncer, grabbed hold of the lever that activated the alarm and pulled. Almost immediately the air was split by a very strident alarm. Not waiting a moment longer Buffy sprinted up the stairs and bumped into the female bouncer who was on her way downstairs to see what the problem was.

“FIRE!” Buffy yelled in the woman's face, before the woman could start to ask questions, Buffy began talking quickly preventing the woman from speaking. “Fire in the lobby,” Buffy explained urgently as she pushed the woman back up the stairs, “we can't get out that way, we need to get everyone out of the fire exits!”

Nodding her head in understanding the female bouncer started to help Buffy herd everyone towards the exits. The woman tried to use her radio to warn all her colleagues but was surprised to find it didn't work.

0=0=0=0

Looking around, Emily grabbed hold of another slayer's arm and yelled into her ear, “HAVE YOU SEEN MS SUMMERS?” the girl shook her head, “OKAY,” the fire alarm was _very_ loud and made thinking, let alone talking very difficult, “GET EVERYONE OUT, WE'LL LOOK FOR MS SUMMERS LATER.”

Letting go of girl's arm, Emily looked around for the younger slayers; Emily was nearly seventeen and as the oldest she felt responsible for her younger sisters; she'd also been a slayer for longer so she was more experienced. Quickly counting heads as the young slayers gathered around her, she saw that only Buffy was missing. Ms Summers was probably involved with whatever was going on, she wouldn't want to be worried by a bunch of teen slayers getting in her way.

“OKAY EVERYONE,” Emily cried, “LETS GET OUT OF HERE!”

0=0=0=0

**The Golden Lantern, Chinese take-away.**

Sitting in the cab of her ambulance, Dawn listened with growing concern to the information coming in over the radio. Picking up the microphone she acknowledged the message and then stuck her head out of the open door of the cab.

“GEORGE!” Dawn shouted, “We've gotta move!”

“Damn!” George left the cartons of Chinese food that had been going to be Dawn and his supper and headed for the ambulance, “What's up, Lass?”

“Not sure,” Dawn closed her door and started the ambulance's engine before strapping herself in, “its all very confusing. Sounds like a fire at the Cleveland Centre.”

“Okay,” George slammed his door and fastened his seat belt, “what are you waiting for Lass?”

“You, you old fool!” Dawn replied with a grin; putting the vehicle into gear she pulled away from the curb and hit the buttons that started the sirens wailing and the lights flashing.

0=0=0=0

**The Cleveland Centre.**

“What is that noise?” Jafs demanded.

“Some sort of emergency alarm, Leader,” announced one of the nearby fighters.

“I had guessed that,” Jafs snarled, “find out what it is and silence it!”

“I obey!” replied the fighter as he headed off into the building.

Annoyed at the loud noise, which was starting to grate on his nerves, Leader Jafs looked down at the huddled group of sacrifices that cowered on the floor before him. Their fear was feeding the Overlords as would their pain when the Overlords started to torture them to death. He'd noticed that the sacrifices felt great sympathetic pain and torment when one of their children were killed. Smiling her drew his sidearm and then picked out one of the smaller sacrifices, a female child. He fired his weapon at the sacrifice's feet and laughed as the child screamed in agony as first its feet then its legs were slowly dissolved as the weapon's energy slowly ate away the sacrifice's flesh. Laughing at the child's screams and the fear and pain of the other helpless sacrifices, Jafs holstered his weapon and felt the gratitude of the Overlords in his mind. Soon the Overlords would come and use the sacrifices themselves.

0=0=0=0

After pulling the ambulance over and into a parking bay, Dawn switched off the engine and stared for a moment through the windscreen; she'd never seen so many flashing lights. There were police cars and vans, fire tenders and ambulances, it looked like every emergency vehicle in northern England was outside the Centre. In between the vehicles she could see police and emergency workers moving with purpose towards the Centre while all around them civilians ran for safety. It was only as she opened her door that she started to hear the screams of the casualties.

“Come on, Dawn,” George said quietly, “work to do Lass.”

Jumping out of the cab, Dawn ran around to the rear of the ambulance and opened the big double doors. Reaching inside she grabbed an emergency pack and passed it to George before picking up her own. Leaving the doors open (the police could be relied on to keep an eye on the vehicle's supplies), Dawn and George jogged towards where they were needed.

They hadn't gone far when they came across a policeman and a member of the public trying to hold down a man who was screaming in pain and writhing about on the floor. Dropping his pack on the ground George went into action as Dawn knelt down next to him and started to check the casualty's vitals. At first Dawn couldn't see what was wrong with the guy, not until George managed to cut the charred clothes from the man's arm. Dawn couldn't help gasping in horror. It looked like the man's hand and about half of his forearm had been burnt off. Horror was heaped on horror as Dawn realised that the man's arm was still being eaten away.

“Dawn!” George called, “Morphine, quick!”

Looking at the man, George knew he couldn't do anything until he'd stopped the man from screaming and writhing about. He watched as Dawn injected an ampoule of morphine into the casualty's thigh before noting the time and size of the dose in Biro on the man's forehead. The man calmed down a lot but the morphine didn't appear to be as effective as it normally was. Looking at where the man's arm was slowly being eaten away, George realised there was nothing he could do to treat something that was still active and that he'd never seen before. This called for radical measures...if he could get ahead of the injury he might be able to save the man's life. Looking up and around he saw a couple of Firefighters near by.

“Hey Lads!” George called, “I could do with some help here...bring me a cutter I've got to take this man's arm off!”

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Middlesbrough Hospital.**

Standing to one side of the waiting room, Dawn sipped her coffee as she watched the news feed on BBC News 24. After George had amputated the casualty's arm they'd driven him to hospital, luckily Middlesbrough hospital was only a five or ten minutes drive from the Cleveland Centre. As the police had cleared the roads and it was late at night, Dawn had got there in record time. Arriving at the hospital, Dawn had helped George get the casualty into the Accident and Emergency department which had been cleared of all normal cases as the situation at the Centre had been declared a 'major incident'.

After getting the man into A & E, Dawn had gone back to her ambulance and cleaned it out, throwing the used dressing into the disposal bins, she'd also replaced the supplies they'd used. After this task was completed, she found that George still hadn't returned and she had a few minutes to spare. Getting a cup of tasteless coffee from the machine in A & E, Dawn leaned against the wall and watched the pictures on the TV news, the sound was turned right down but there was a printed version of what was being reported scrolling across the bottom of the screen. The Police were saying that a group of terrorists had taken control of the Cleveland Centre and were using some sort chemical weapon. The police spokesman explained that although there'd been a number of casualties they still expected a peaceful conclusion to the situation and people shouldn't panic.

“A number of casualties,” Dawn muttered; from what little Dawn had seen the 'number of casualties' was pretty high and the only reason that A & E wasn't packed with wounded was that most of the casualties were dead.

It was about this time that senses long honed to razor sharpness by living for years in Sunnydale started to kick in and Dawn began to get an awfully bad feeling about the situation. Dumping her coffee, she walked quickly outside where she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket. First she tried to phone Buffy, but there was no answer. Next she phoned the Duty Slayer and asked her whether Buffy was still at Central. The duty slayer informed Dawn that her sister was out, taking a group of trainees on their end of course treat at the Cleveland Centre. Gasping, Dawn quickly hung up and tried her sister again, there was still no answer. Cutting the connection, Dawn called Faith.

“Faith!” Dawn cried with relief as her girlfriend picked up the call on the second ring, “are you watching the news?”

When Faith said no, Dawn told her to switch on the TV to one of the national news channels. Next she explained that Buffy had been in the Centre and how she couldn't contact her.

“Okay, Dawnie,” Faith replied calmly, “I'm on it. Do ya want me to call Red and Kennie?”

“Yeah good,” Dawn agreed, “it might be an idea to mobilise as many people as we can, I've got a bad feeling about this. That guy on the TV isn't...”

Dawn realised she was talking to dead air as the mobile signal was suddenly cut off. Looking at her phone, Dawn cursed it under her breath before trying to call Faith again, there was still no signal so she slipped the phone back into her pocket and went to look for a land line. Unfortunately she bumped into George just as he was coming out of A & E.

“Come on Lass,” George called as he took Dawn by the shoulder and turned her around to face the ambulance, “work to do, we've got to get back to the Centre.”

“Okay,” Dawn replied as she trotted along side the paramedic, “hey does your phone work?”

“All the mobile signals have been switched off to stop the terrorists using their phones to communicate,” George explained as he helped Dawn to shut the ambulance's rear doors.

“You believe that stuff about it being terrorists?” Dawn called as she headed for the front of the vehicle.

“Why not?” George asked as he climbed aboard next to Dawn.

“I don't know,” Dawn shrugged, “There's something not quite right about this...I mean why are they burning people with chemicals, why not just use guns and bombs?”

“Who knows Lass?” George shook his head, “They're terrorists, there's no accounting for what terrorists do.”

0=0=0=0

**Dawn and Faith's House, Saltburn-by-the-Sea.**

“Dawn?” Faith called into her phone, there was no reply, she tried again, “Dawn?”

Again there was no reply, taking her phone from her ear Faith read the writing on the screen, 'No Signal' it said.

“Damn it!” Faith dropped the phone onto the coffee table in front of her and then got up and headed for the land line at the foot of the stairs. All members of the inner circle of the Slayer Organisation had a land line fitted at their homes just in case the mobile system went off line. It now looked as if the extra expense was going to pay off. Lifting the receiver, Faith quickly dialled Willow and Kennedy's number. The phone was answered on the third ring.

“Kennie? Red?” Faith called urgently into the mouth piece.

“It's Kennie, what's up Faith?” Kennedy sounded a little breathless as if she'd run for the phone, “if you want Willow she's a little tied up at the moment.”

“Then ya better untie her, have ya been watching the news?” Faith asked.

“Hardly,” Kennedy replied, “just a moment,” Faith heard the TV come on in the background, “what should I be watching?”

“Switch it to a news channel,” Faith explained, “there's something going on at the Cleveland Centre...”

Faith quickly explained about what Dawn had told her and how Buffy appeared to be missing.

“Okay,” Kennedy said slowly, “you think we should meet up? Where?” the younger woman sounded slightly annoyed, “I mean, I'm guessing the cops have got the area sealed off good and tight.”

“Yeah ya right,” Faith thought for a few minutes, an idea came to her, “remember the old steel works that had all those slimy worm things living in it?”

“Oh yeah,” Kennedy laughed at the memory, “where Buffy fell and got all that goo on her and...”

“Yeah that's the place,” Faith interrupted the younger slayer's happy memories of what had happened to Buffy, trying not to smile herself, Faith continued with her suggestion, “you an' Red meet me there in, what? Thirty minutes?”

“Can do,” Kennedy replied crisply, “weapons?”

“Better bring something sharp an' pointy and get Red to put her major mojo on,” Faith explained, “You got any guns?”

“Not here,” Kennedy replied her voice getting serious.

“Don't sweat it,” Faith reassured her, “I'll stop by Central and get some gear from the armoury.”

“Cool,” Kennedy agreed, “I better go and untie Willow...”

“Sorry, man, if I interrupted anything,” Faith apologised.

“Can't be helped,” Kennedy sighed wistfully, “meet you in thirty, right?”

“Five by five,” Faith grinned, she hardly ever used her old 'catch phrase' any more, she supposed she must have grown out of it, “see ya there.”

Putting down the receiver, Faith went up the stairs to change into something more 'fighty' than the shorts and t-shirt she'd been wearing. Next she'd jump into the new Mini that they'd had to buy after their old one had been blown up by the guys who'd tried to sacrifice Dawn to their Goddess. A quick drive up to Central, collect some guns, ammo and a few other goodies from the armoury then down to the old steel works. The way she could drive she'd do it with time to spare!

0=0=0=0

**Police Command Centre, the Cleveland Centre.**

“Still no contact?” Assistant Chief Constable Jerome asked.

“Not a sound,” Jack Williams, the chief police negotiator for Northern England replied; he'd not had very much to do since he'd arrived because the terrorists seemed violently disinclined to talk.

“What, no demands, no one claiming responsibility?” ACC Jerome demanded.

“Nothing, we've tried calling them on the phone,” Williams shook his head, “we even tried a loud speaker but they shot at it.”

“Any casualties?” Jerome wanted to know.

“Two dead,” the negotiator admitted.

“Damn it,” the ACC kicked a table in frustration.

“Sir?” a uniformed sergeant climbed up in to the mobile command centre, “I've got the update on the known casualties.”

“Here,” Jerome held his hand out, “let me see.”

Taking the print out from the sergeant's hand, Jerome started to read. So far thirty civilians had been confirmed dead and another ten seriously injured. Plus another five firefighters had been killed when they'd tried to answer what they'd believed to be a call to a fire in the Centre. The Centre security supervisor who'd managed to get out before whoever had got into his security office, guested that there were at least twenty terrorist, probably more, and more than two hundred shoppers left in the building; how many were in the multiplex and pub was anyone's guess.

So far the only good news was that someone had set off the fire alarm in the Pink Dragon nightclub and nearly one hundred people had managed to evacuate using the fire escapes. Jerome suspected that whoever had set the fire alarm off had seen what was going on and had acted to get the people out. Whoever was responsible should be congratulated for their quick thinking; so far his men had failed to find anyone who wanted to admit to being a hero. 

“Find me Inspector Stirling, would you?” Jerome said to no one in particular.

Shaking his head, Jerome was just thinking that he was going to have to use force to resolve this situation when a disturbance outside made him look towards the door.

“I'm sorry sir, you can't...” the young constable's voice was cut off by another man's voice.

“I'm afraid we can,” a middle aged man with a craggy face and short greying hair stepped up into the command centre followed by a tough looking man in his thirties and an equally tough looking woman who looked only slightly younger. “Good evening,” the older man approached Jerome holding out his hand, “I'm Colonel Dempsey, Twenty-Two Regiment,” Dempsey shook Jerome's hand vigorously, he turned to introduce the two people with him, “and these are Staff Sergeant Garvie and Sergeant McBride,” Colonel Dempsey smiled, “we're here to lend a hand.”

'Christ', Jerome sighed internally, this was all he needed, the army had come to blow things up!

0=0=0=0

**The Pink Dragon Night Club.**

Standing in the now deserted night club, Buffy wondered what her next move should be and really wished she'd chosen a more practical outfit for the evening. Buttoning up her blouse and removing her 'school' tie she headed over to the bar looking for a weapon. The best she could come up with was a small knife used to cut up fruit for drinks. There was of course all the bottles of alcohol behind the bar. At a push she could make Molotov Cocktails with those, but she didn't want to start burning down the building just yet. Remembering there was a kitchen, Buffy came out from behind the bar and headed out back. Pushing open the kitchen door her eye immediately fell on a nice, long, sharp looking kitchen knife with a good heavy blade. Picking up the knife she hefted it in her hand and tested the edge with her thumb.

“Ow!” Buffy gasped as she nicked her thumb on the blade, “Sharp!”

Which was exactly what she wanted, smiling happily, Buffy turned around and walked back out into the main part of the club. As she walked across the floor towards the steps leading downstairs, she noticed that one of the fire doors was still open. Pausing for a moment, she told herself that if she had any sense at all, she'd drop the knife and get out of here. But that wasn't the slayer thing to do, it certainly wasn't the Buffy Summers thing to do. Pulling back her shoulders, Buffy headed for the top of the stairs knife in hand, it was time _things_ had to learn that they couldn't come into 'her' town and start killing people; it was time for some payback.

0=0=0=0

**Outside the Cleveland Centre.**

“Bloody Plod!” Staff Sergeant Henry 'Henno' Garvie muttered just loud enough for the policemen on the door to hear, “Happens every bloody time...”

“What does?” Sergeant Maggie McBride asked as she grinned at her colleague, they were both standing outside the police command van.

“Oh,” Henno sighed, “the Plods always think they can settle these things peacefully, then when it all turns to crap they come crying to us.”

“And it's, Tommy this an' Tommy that, an' Tommy wait outside...” Maggie quoted Kipling and got an annoyed look from Henno for her trouble.

“If they just let us sort things out in the first place...” Henno didn't get a chance to finish what he was saying; Maggie, having heard all this before, cut him off.

“I know, I know,” Maggie held up her hand in a placatory gesture, “instead of standing here complaining about how the entire Cleveland Constabulary is made up of brainless, dickhead, fuckwits, shouldn't we be getting the guys settled in and maybe set up our own command centre, Colonel Dempsey's bound to want one.”

“Yeah,” Henno relaxed and smiled at his fellow NCO, “you're right, lets go, I'm sure the Colonel can deal with Plod.” They started to walk away from the police command centre, “Hey!” Henno clicked his fingers as he remembered something, “isn't this where the slayers have their HQ?”

“Yeah, Saltburn-by-the-Sea,” Maggie replied, she'd spent sometime as a slayer-instructor at the camp.

“So where are they?” Henno wanted to know, “I'd have thought they'd be all over this.”

“Probably think its none of their business,” Maggie explained, “a natural rather than a supernatural threat.”

“Pity,” Henno shrugged, “I heard that the chief slayer is quite a looker...”

“Sexist pig,” Maggie replied good naturedly.

“Anyway we've got you,” Henno nudged Maggie’s arm, “what more do we need?”

Back in two-thousand-and-three, the then, Lance Corporal Maggie McBride, Royal Military Police had woken up one day to find she could bend girders. At first the army didn't know what to do with their very own superwoman, until someone suggested that they send her to the SAS in Hereford. So it happened that Maggie became the very first active, female member of the most elite special forces unit in the world. 

The British establishment had always been aware of the existence of the Council of Watchers, Slayers and the 'netherworld' threat. After all most of the government, civil service and the higher levels of the military had been to the same Public Schools as the men of the Council of Watchers. However, apart from a little mutual aid over the years the two groups had kept themselves strictly separate. Until that is one fateful night in two-thousand-and-two when not only did the government find itself picking up the pieces of the destroyed Council of Watchers headquarters, but a few weeks later they seemed to be knee deep in slayers. 

For awhile MI5 tried to run the slayers but they weren't really prepared for controlling several dozen super-strong teenage girls. The girls weren't agents and MI5 was unwilling to try and turn them into agents. It was then that Buffy and the Scoobies had started to set up their organisation near the Middlesbrough Hellmouth. The slayers were packed off home with orders to be careful and wait to be contacted by the new Slayer Organisation.

It was then that someone remembered about Trooper McBride, SAS. The Minister in charge of such things thought it might be a good idea to have a set of eyes and ears inside the Slayer Organisation. In the fullness of time Maggie was sent north where she took up duties as a Slayer Instructor at the Saltburn-by-the-Sea camp. Eventually she'd spent over a year working undercover at the camp both before and after Buffy had been sent to prison. As it turned out, Buffy had been framed by another Ministry that wanted to take control the Slayers. However, the security services wanted nothing to do with the supernatural and worked to get Buffy released.

Eventually, Buffy had been released from jail with a full pardon and substantial compensation for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. It was not long after Buffy returned to the bosom of her family that Maggie decided that she couldn't obey two masters anymore and asked to be taken off the assignment. Very quickly the security services removed Maggie and sent her back to the SAS while they opened their own paths of communication with the Slayer Organisation.

The British security services had a real 'hands-off' approach to the world of the supernatural, believing it should be dealt with by the experts, namely the Slayer Organisation. However, there was always a chance that MI5 or MI6 might bump into something that had a supernatural cause and the slayers might find out something that concerned national security. Over a period of time, discreet contacts were made and now there was an exchange of information between MI5/MI6 and the Slayers. However, this was the first time that the military had needed to work in an area that was thought of as 'belonging' to the Slayers. Henno, for one, thought it would be wise to; (A) inform the Slayers that the SAS were in town and (B) find out if the slayers knew what the hell was going on.

0=0=0=0

**A Hotel Bar in South Shields.**

Leaning against the bar, Giles frowned at his mobile phone. He'd been trying to call Buffy and tell her he wouldn't be home tonight, but he'd been unable to get through. Next he'd tried the camp itself and when he couldn't get through there he'd tried Faith and Willow's numbers. Again he couldn't get through. He was about to cancel everything and head back to Saltburn-by-the-Sea when he happened to notice the news bulletin on the TV over the bar. Apparently there was some sort of incident at the Cleveland Centre and all the mobile signals in the area had been switched off. Sighing with relief he was just about to order himself another pint of ale when a hand taped him on the shoulder.

“Rupert,” said a soft, female voice by his ear.

Turning, Giles looked down and smiled, “Olivia!”

0=0=0=0

**Notes.**

A British Army 'Staff Sergeant' is equivalent to a US Army 'Sergeant First Class', they are both graded as OR7. A British Staff Sergeant would normally fill roles such as Company Quartermaster Sergeant or act as a Platoon Leader if no Officer was available to take the slot.

When L/Cpl Maggie McBride joined the SAS she would have dropped a rank to 'Trooper'.

Plod: a derisive term for the police. The term originates from the character of 'Mr Plod the Policeman' in the Noddy and Big Ears children's books.

Tommy; an affectionate nickname for a British soldier.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Outside the Cleveland Centre.**

Standing in the doorway of the police command vehicle, Assistant Chief Constable Jerome, watched the activity around the shopping mall. Gone was the organised chaos of a couple of hours ago, gone were the wounded civilians and the emergency workers. Now everything was calm with the police having cordoned off the Centre and the other emergency services having been pulled back to a safe distance. Looking up he could just make out the shapes of police marksmen silhouetted against the night sky. Down amongst the multitude of police vehicles the Armed Response Units were preparing to go in and arrest the terrorists who'd caused such horrific casualties.

Yet they still didn't know who the terrorist were, Jack Williams (the police negotiator) had been singularly unsuccessful in opening any form of dialogue with them. In fact the only time anyone had even glimpsed the terrorists was when they showed themselves to take a shot at any police officer that got too close to the building. Of course they'd now gone passed the need to open a dialogue. Down in London there'd been a meeting of Cobra, the government's emergency committee, and decisions had been made at the highest level.

Having spoken to the Home Secretary himself, Jerome had put the wheels in motion and in about twenty minutes the Armed Response Units would force their way into the Cleveland Centre and arrest or kill the terrorists responsible for this outrage. The government wanted arrests, they wanted to know who they were dealing with and what new threat they were facing. Checking the time on his watch, Jerome sighed heavily thinking he better go down and speak to Inspector Stirling who'd be leading his men into the mall in a little over fifteen minutes.

0=0=0=0

**SAS Command Centre, outside the Cleveland Centre.**

“Boss?” Henno stuck his head around the door of the maroon Range Rover the SAS were using as a temporary command post.

“Staff?” Captain Fleming, the present commander of 'Red Troop' looked up from the plans he was studying on his laptop computer.

“You might want to come look at this,” Henno could hardly hide the contempt in his voice, “looks like the police are going in.”

“What?” Fleming stared at Henno in disbelief for a couple of seconds, “Why wasn't I told?”

“I'm telling you now, Sir,” Henno replied with a shrug.

“Damn-it-all!” Fleming snapped as he put the laptop to one side and climbed out of his vehicle.

“I know, sir,” Henno shrugged his shoulders, “the ACC must have been in contact with the Home Secretary and...”

“And our illustrious Home Secretary wants everything sorted out and tidied up before dawn so he can be interviewed on the breakfast news shows,” Fleming's tone of voice told Henno exactly what the he thought about the Home Secretary.

“Looks like, Boss,” Henno agreed, “looks like they'll be going in any minute now.”

“Okay,” Fleming put what he'd like to do to the Home Secretary aside for the moment, “Get everyone geared up and ready to go just in case we have to pull the police's fingers out of the fire.”

“Already done, Boss,” Henno couldn't resist a small smirk.

“Well done, Staff Sergeant,” Fleming replied as he pulled his own gear from the back of the Range Rover.

0=0=0=0

**Inside the Cleveland Centre.**

Watching from behind a concrete pillar, Buffy studied the man who was standing at the edge of the balcony about twelve yards away. The guy was tall, he must be well over six feet, but even under what Buffy thought had to be some sort of body armour he looked thin. In fact he made Buffy think of a spider when she looked at him, his arms and legs looked too long to be completely natural.

“Just another demon,” Buffy whispered to herself as she slipped off her heels and hid them behind the pillar; perhaps she'd be able to come back for them, she hoped she would, they were the most comfortable pair of heels she'd ever had.

Hefting the kitchen knife in her hand, Buffy slipped silently from behind her pillar and started to move rapidly towards her target. Having spent several minutes watching her prospective victim, she was pretty sure he was isolated up here on the upper level and she'd be able to kill him without being spotted or interrupted. Running on silent, stockinged feet, she rapidly closed the range, for a second she considered the armour the man was wearing, it would probably turn the blade of her knife, best if she went for the throat.

Now, right behind the man, Buffy realised just how tall he really was, forget 'over six feet', she was now thinking just under seven would be more accurate. Reaching up, Buffy grabbed her victim by the back of his body armour and started to pull him down to her level. Taken totally by surprise, the man gave out a startled exclamation as his arms windmilled as he tried to regain his balance and his weapon clattered noisily to the floor.

“Damn-it!” Buffy cursed as she pulled the man off his feet; bringing her knife into play she ran it quickly across his throat before standing back to avoid getting blood on her outfit. 

Crouching down below the level of the safety barrier, Buffy wiped the blood off her knife onto the man's leg. As she did so she quickly checked him out once more. Her eyes rapidly took in what had to be some sort of uniform, but it wasn't like any uniform she'd seen before. First it made the, now dead man, look like a member of the 'Legion of Terror' from some particularly bad 50's sci-fi movie. Also there were the colours, yellowy sand and a reddish brown, to her eyes the outfit would do exactly the opposite of what camouflage was supposed to do.

Whatever, Buffy told herself, she could worry about these fashion victims later. Picking up the guy's weird looking gun, she paused as she scanned for threats before heading off at a fast run for the door to a service area she'd spotted earlier. Now she had a knife and a gun. Okay she still looked like an extra from a St Trinians film but at least she was a heavily armed extra. Just as she reached the door, Buffy was brought up short by the sound of shouting, it seemed to be coming from the direction of the main entrance. Hardly having the time to process what might be going on, Buffy then heard the sound of firing coming up from below. Something was most definitely happening and it might be a good idea for her to get under cover, pushing her way through the door she vanished from view.

0=0=0=0

**The Cleveland Centre, Linthorpe Road, 'North' Entrance.**

“...remember,” Inspector Stirling reminded his men one last time, “we want 'hard arrests', give them a chance to surrender, alright?”

There were answering nods from the officers closest to the Inspector, checking his watch, Stirling waited for the last few seconds to tick by. So far he and his men, who looked more like black clad Imperial Stormtroopers than the traditional 'British Bobby', had approached the shopping mall unchallenged, Stirling expected that to change just as soon as they gained access to the building. Watching as the second hand of his watch swept towards 'twelve', Stirling signalled with his right hand for his men to start crossing the last few yards towards the door. Clutching his MP5 tightly, he followed the two men carrying the heavy 'door knocker'.

Taking up position to one side of the door that the men with the knocker were preparing to smash in, Stirling felt just a little foolish. Here he was in full view of anyone inside the building pretending he wasn't there! Just before his men swung the knocker, Stirling held up his hand for them to stop, he'd noticed something odd. Reaching out with his free hand he pushed at the door. He'd been right, the door was unlocked! Gesturing to his men to stand back, Stirling put his weapon to his shoulder and pushed through the door and into the mall.

Behind him other officers came through the doors and deployed across the wide passageway between the shops. To his left was a shoe shop and to his right was a small newsagents. Leading his men deeper into the mall, Stirling was amazed that they'd not been challenged yet. From the complete and utter lack of firing or shouting, he reasoned that none of the other teams who'd entered the mall at the same time as his were meeting any more resistance than he was.

Lifting his hand to bring his men to a halt, Stirling cautiously looked around the corner of the passage way into the main part of the mall. This was the main north-south concourse which at this point was about twenty metres wide and stretched the length of the mall. Opposite him he could see the W H Smith shop and newsagent, to his right he could see a café which took up about ten metres of the width of the concourse. To his left he could see the shapes of the team that had come in through the North Entrance. What he couldn't see was any sign of the terrorists, in fact apart from the place being deserted, other than about thirty armed police, you'd almost imagine that there was nothing strange going on. It was only when he raised his eyes to look at the balcony above that he saw them. Several men standing in brightly coloured clothing pointing oddly shaped weapons at him and his men. Aiming at one of the men, Stirling shifted position to allow more of his men to get into firing position.

“ARMED POLICE!” yelled Stirling as loudly as he could, “DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND...”

The rest of Stirling's words were lost as they were drowned out by the strange whooshing-whining sound made by the invaders weapons. Stirling himself never had a chance to fire because his body simply disintegrated leaving only his arms, legs and head to lie on the polished marble floor. Firing became general as police officers dived for cover and others were reduced to smoking piles of burnt meat and melted equipment.

Having seen Stirling burst into flame and watched his body parts being scattered across the mall's floor, Sergeant Ed Price, raised his weapon and fired at the terrorist who'd just killed the Inspector. Price clearly saw his rounds strike the man in the comic book armour. He also saw that they had no effect until a couple of rounds hit the terrorist in the face. Pausing as the terrorist's head exploded spraying blood up over the ceiling behind the man, Price called out to his fellow officers.

“THEY'RE WEARING BODY ARMOUR, GO FOR HEAD SH...!” Price never managed to finish his instructions because he too shared the fate of his Inspector; a blast from one of the terrorist's weapons cut his body neatly in two.

For just a moment Price found himself lying on the floor wondering what had happened, very quickly the darkness took the world from his sight and he found he didn't have to wonder about anything any more.

The whooshing-whining sound of the invader's guns mixed with that of the police's MP5's. However, to any independent observer it was clear that while the sound of the invaders weapons was getting louder the volume of police return fire was getting less. Eventually the police answering fire petered out completely as the surviving officers headed for the exits dragging their wounded colleagues behind them.

0=0=0=0

Half way down the service corridor, Buffy froze as she heard the firing break out in the main part of the mall. Not wishing to be shot by accident, she'd carried on down the corridor until she came to the door of a ladies restroom, or simply a 'Ladies' as it was called in Britain. Looking quickly up and down the brightly lit corridor, she saw that she'd not been observed and ducked into the restroom.

Once inside she leant against one of the wash basins and looked at herself in the mirror; she couldn't help but smile at the 'naughty schoolgirl' who looked back at herself. Turning around, Buffy saw that she was the only person in the room. Reaching up under her skirt she pulled her mobile phone from out of her panties, the screen still gave the same message as it had done ten minutes before, 'No Signal'. Sighing with frustration, Buffy was tempted to throw the phone away. However she'd already lost a perfectly good pair of shoes tonight, she wouldn't compound things by throwing away her phone.

Slipping her phone back into her panties, Buffy promised herself that next time she'd bring a bag however she might be dressed. Next she turned to examining the gun she'd taken from the guy in the brightly coloured armour. It looked more or less like most guns she'd seen while at the same time being 'weird'. Over the last six months or so the Slayer Organisation, had bowed to the inevitable and started to use guns. They used shotguns and pistols mostly, but Kennedy had also supplied them with a selection of assault rifles, rocket launchers and a few heavier weapons; Buffy had never asked where the younger slayer had got them. After all what she didn't know she couldn't tell the police when they were all arrested.

Holding the weapon in both hands, Buffy slipped her hand around the weapon's pistol grip. It was way too big for her, it'd obviously been made for some one with a much larger hand. Once again Buffy's mind went on a quick day trip to 'spankiland' where Giles was holding her over his knee while he spanked her bottom. Closing her eyes, Buffy shook her head to dispel these disturbing images and concentrated on the gun instead. Pointing the weapon at the far wall, she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, there wasn't even a 'click'.

Looking at the gun again, Buffy switched some switches and tried again. Once more the far wall _didn't_ explode into flying masonry as the titanic energies directed by the weapon tore it apart. Disappointed Buffy placed the gun next to a wash basin, she'd have to make do with her knife. To be honest she felt more at home with a knife. Although she was willing to use them, Buffy didn't like guns which wasn't surprising after nearly being shot to death. But it went deeper than that, to her they just didn't _feel_ right.

However, just because her captured gun didn't work didn't mean she could hide out in the lady's room all night; no, there were demons to kill and time was a-wasting. Knife in hand she walked over to the door and carefully looked out into the corridor. Like before there was no one in sight and the sound of firing had stopped. Something seemed to be telling her that the fact there was no more firing wasn't a good thing. Holding her knife to one side, Buffy made her way along the corridor, she'd no idea where she was going or what she'd do when she got there. Buffy simply assumed that eventually she'd bump into one or more of the bad guys, she'd kill them and then find some more. Stab and repeat, until all the big bads were dead and she could get home to her bed.

Coming to the end of the corridor, Buffy was faced by two doors, one said 'Fire Exit'. If she went through that one she could probably go home, but that would leave a lot of demons un-stabbed. The other door was unmarked but the blood curdling scream coming from the other side convinced her that this was the door for her. Bursting through the door, knife raised and ready for some serious stabbing, the sight that greeted Buffy's eyes almost made her want to throw-up.

The first thing she saw that made her stop dead in her tracks was the vile, monster-demon thing that stood over a broken and bloody body that was strapped to a metal table. There were two or three of the tall demon-guys in the brightly coloured armour standing around too, a couple of them were wiping blood off there hands with paper towels. This scene was reduced to a welter of blood and flying body parts as the demon-guy who wasn't wiping blood of his hands went for his gun and Buffy started to move.

Moving like no special effects designer could ever imagine a short blonde could move, Buffy sprang into action. Using economic, fluid strokes of her knife she cut down the two torturers before the guy with the gun had even pulled his weapon from his holster. Ducking under the fountaining blood, Buffy jumped up in front of the gunman as she rammed her knife up under the breastplate of his armour. Looking up Buffy saw the look of perplexed surprise on the man's face as she twisted the blade from left to right before yanking it from her victim's body. Even as the man fell to his knees, Buffy was surprised when she noticed how his face was still on about the same level as her own. Pushing the barely living corpse out of her way she went after the hideous, grey-white-slimey, frog-like creature that was moving rapidly towards a door at the far end of the room.

Stabbing the creature in the back, Buffy was astonished to see that her blow had hardly slowed the monster down. In fact it only appeared to have pissed the creature off. Ducking under a viciously swung clawed hand, Buffy rolled across the tiled floor. Springing to her feet again, grabbing a large saucepan (she now realised that she was in a kitchen) she hurled it at the monster's head. The creature didn't even try to duck, it took the full force of the slayer propelled projectile in the face and didn't even flinch.

The pan fell to the floor with a loud 'clang' as Buffy looked around for something else to throw. While she was doing this the creature started to move towards her at an amazingly fast rate. Somehow she'd got the impression that it would only move sluggishly. Almost before she realised it the monster was in front of her raising its cruelly taloned hand to rip open her incredibly hot body. Very few creatures are actually faster than a slayer, even fewer are faster than the oldest slayer alive. 

Thrusting out with her knife, Buffy caught the demon under the chin. It screamed hideously as she thrust the knife further into its head. Black blood oozed over her hand as the demon batted ineffectually at her arm with it hands. Twisting the blade in the wound, Buffy felt bone break under her knife as the monster's struggles got weaker and weaker until they finally stopped. Finding that the only reason that the creature was still on its feet was because she was holding it up, Buffy let go of her knife and watched the demon far to the floor.

“Good!” Buffy took a deep breath, “Four bad guys and one less monster in the world.”

Turning to see if there was anything she could do for the guy strapped to the table, Buffy froze as she saw what remained of the young man's face.

“Adam!” Buffy gasped in horror.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**Outside the Police Cordon, Middlesbrough.**

“One of us needs to buy a bigger car,” Faith announced; at the moment Willow, Kennedy and herself were sharing the inside of the Mini with a pile of weapons and Willow's magic paraphernalia, the car was simply too small.

“I was thinking about buying a Range Rover or something,” Kennedy explained, she glanced at Willow, “for when the baby arrives.”

“Do you really think we'll need something so big?” Willow wanted to know, “And I'm not even pregnant yet.”

“Yeah,” Faith turned in her seat to look directly at Willow, “how ya gonna manage that, I mean getting pregnant?”

“Willow's decided she wants Giles to be the father,” Kennedy announced before Willow could stop her.

“Kennedy!” Willow sounded slightly annoyed, “You don't have to tell everyone!”

“Sorry, but people'll find out anyway,” Kennedy shrugged.

“So what ya gonna do,” Faith, despite herself, was curious about the mechanics of the process, “ya gonna let Giles screw ya?”

“EWWWWWW!” Willow squealed, “I mean, Giles is nice an' all but...”

“No, its not done like that,” Kennedy started to explain, “all we need is a cup and a turkey baster and some of Giles'...” suddenly Kennedy felt strangely reticent about the entire procedure, “...y'know, his...”

“Cum?” Faith asked, a small, wicked grin on her face, “Like, good luck with that coz unless ya gonna use magic I don't think ya gonna get anything outta Giles.”

“Whatever,” Willow desperately tried to change the subject, “shouldn't we be thinking about how we're going to get into the Cleveland Centre.”

“Willow's right,” Kennedy nodded her head, “people are dying and we're talking about Willow getting pregnant.”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed, “the cop's got the place sewn up tighter than a drum,” she sighed heavily, “unless Red knows a good invisibility spell we ain't gonna be sneaking in any time soon...” she turned to look at Willow again, “...ya don't know an invisibility spell do ya?”

“Nothing that really works,” just about now Willow was wishing she still had Warren's invisibility ray, but she'd taken it apart and used it for spares for the Buffy-bot ages ago.

For a moment no one said anything as they sat in the car staring in the direction of the Cleveland Centre. They were parked on one of the roads that ran alone side the Prince Albert Park, it was the closest they could get to the Centre, even there they were still a good mile away from their target.

“Hey guys,” Willow said slowly, “I've just had a really wacky idea.”

0=0=0=0

**Outside the Cleveland Centre.**

Although George, herself and all the other medical staff had rushed to the aid of the wounded police after the failed attempt to retake the Centre. There'd been nothing much anyone could do for the wounded other than pump them full of pain meds and watch them die; Dawn suspected that one or two of them had been given overdoses of morphine to speed them on their way. The terrorist's weapons (although at this point Dawn was pretty sure that these weren't any 'normal' terrorists) inflicted horrific wounds, it was almost as if the weapons had been designed to to cause as much pain as possible.

After helping put the dead in the back of some army trucks (there'd been that many), Dawn had gone back to her ambulance. Finding that George was nowhere to be seen, she sat in the back with her legs dangling out of the rear doors. As she sat there she worried about Buffy, she'd managed to find a couple of the slayers that had gone to the Centre with her sister. They'd said that the last time they'd seen her was when the alarm went off in the nightclub. None of them had seen Buffy once everyone had got out of the club. Telling the girls to go back to Slayer Central and report in to the Duty Slayer, Dawn had gone back to her ambulance and started to worry.

Not only was she worried about Buffy, she was wondering where, Faith, Willow and Kennedy where, surely they should be here by now. It was while she was sitting there fretting over things she couldn't do anything about, she suddenly noticed two pairs of black boots on the road way in front of her. Raising her head a little she saw that the boots were attached to two pairs of black clad legs which were in turn attached to two black clad stormtroopers. One of the stormtroopers was a woman and it took Dawn a moment before she realised that she knew her.

“Maggie?” Dawn asked; Maggie had had a short lived affair with Buffy not long after she'd come out of prison.

“Dawn,” Maggie smiled, “I thought it was you, I almost didn't recognise you in your uniform.”

“Yeah,” Dawn looked down at her grass green coveralls and shrugged, “height of fashion...gotta say you're looking very...sinister,” Dawn glanced at the stormtrooper standing next to Maggie, “who's your friend.”

“Staff Sergeant Garvie,” the man introduced himself, “if I understand Mags correctly you're Buffy Summers' sister?”

“Erm...” Dawn wasn't too sure what and how much to tell this guy who was so obviously a soldier.

“It's okay,” Maggie reassured Dawn, “Henno knows all about Buffy and what she does.”

“He does?” Dawn swallowed nervously.

“Yeah,” Henno grinned down at Dawn, “and one day I'd like to shake her by the hand and tell her 'thank-you'.”

“You would?” Dawn replied uncertainly; although from what she'd seen and heard the military and security services in Britain were more 'understanding' of the work the slayers did, Dawn was still a little suspicious of officialdom, after all old habits died hard.

“Yeah,” Garvie came and sat down next to Dawn, “if it wasn't for the slayers it'd be me chasing after the demons and things that go bump in the night.”

“Oh...” Dawn nodded her head slowly, “...that's like cool.”

“So where's your sister,” Maggie wanted to know as she sat down on the opposite side of Dawn from Garvie, “I'd have thought she'd be all over this.”

“A far as I know,” Dawn replied, the words catching in her throat, “she's in there,” she gestured towards the Centre, “and I can't contact Faith or Willow or Kennedy coz the phones are out and no one knows what's going on and...”

Finally Dawn let go and allowed herself to have an emotional breakdown, just a little one, she was too much of a professional to really fall to pieces. But, things had been building up, they'd not been able to help any of the casualties and that really hurt Dawn, plus she was worried about Buffy.

“Faith?” Henno looked over the top of Dawn's head at Maggie.

“Faith and Kennedy are two very experienced slayers,” Maggie explained.

“Willow?” Henno prompted.

“Mega powerful witch,” Maggie continued, “you really don't want to piss her off...people who have don't stay human for long.”

“Dangerously unstable then?” Henno asked half seriously.

“Nah,” Maggie shook her head, “she's really very cute and sweet.”

“But not the sort of girl you'd want annoyed at you?” Henno asked.

“Definitely not,” Maggie reiterated. 

“You know,” Henno said slowly, “now that the police have screwed up big time, we're going to have to go in and save everyone's bacon, right?”

Maggie nodded her agreement.

“So, when we go in,” a bloodthirsty grin had come to Henno's lips, “it'd be good to have two more slayers and a 'mega powerful' witch on our side, right?”

0=0=0=0

**Inside the Cleveland Centre.**

After bowing low to the Overlord, Group Leader Jafs began to make his report.

“The local warriors have been totally defeated, My Lord,” he announced proudly, “there is nothing they can do to prevent us from removing the sacrifices through the portal.”

The Overlord said something in its own language to the effect that one of its kind had been killed and he wanted to know why.

“The death of any Overlord is to be regretted, My Lord,” Jafs continued smoothly, “and I have dispatched forces to bring the murderer to justice.”

The Overlord pointed out that he hoped Jafs' troops would be successful, if they weren't, Jafs could find himself spending his last days inside a torture machine.

“Of course, My Lord,” Jafs bowed low once more.”

The Overlord now wanted to know how many sacrifices they'd be taking home through the portal.

“Seventy-six,” Jafs replied without hesitation, “all young and strong, they will provide the Overlords with months of entertainment.”

The truth was that the Overlords needed the pain and suffering of others to survive, it was almost like food to them. Although they often raided less advanced realities through their portals, this was the first time in a very long time that they'd raided Earth. They'd done it in answer to a request from one of their allies (a race of insect-like creatures who lived on Earth's moon and were no use to the Overlords as sacrifices) who supplied them with a labour force. These moon-creatures had been attacked by some Earthlings and wanted to strike back. Unfortunately for the moon-creatures the humans had damaged their city so badly that their military capability was seriously impaired, so they'd called on the Overlords for help.

The Overlord explained that Jafs performance had been 'adequate', as the Slave Soldiers and Overlords had killed nearly two hundred natives in agonising and inventive ways, he was to be congratulated. However, any reward for a raid efficiently carried out would be for nothing if the killer of the Overlord escaped a slow and excruciatingly painful death.

“I obey,” Jafs bowed once more, before leaving the Overlord's presence and joining the hunt for the murderer.

0=0=0=0

**Near Albert Park**

“Look guys its simple,” Willow already had her scrying bowl on her lap and was pouring water into it, “I scry for Dawn, then I teleport us to where she is.”

“Not that I'm against finding Dawn,” Faith pointed out, in fact she was very concerned about her girlfriend's welfare but had been trying not to show it, “but why do we need to find her?”

“Well,” Willow took a deep breath, “of the four of us she's probably the only one who knows any up to date information.”

“The teleporting, Willow,” Kennedy had a very serious expression on her face, “you're sure your up to it, it won't hurt the baby?”

“Kennedy!?” Willow loved Kennedy more than she could tell, but sometimes... “Look how many times do I have to say this? I'M NOT PREGNANT YET!”

“Okay, okay,” Kennedy sulked, after all, she was only thinking about Willow's health, “no need to shout.”

“Hey!” Faith thought she better step in and try to keep everyone calm, “No need to yell, okay?” she looked from witch to slayer and back again, “I'm sure Kennie's just worried, is all.”

“Yes, sorry,” Willow looked at Kennedy, “sorry I yelled sweetie...but it'll be fine. We're not going far and Dawn will be like an anchor at the receiving end, but there is one small things...”

“And that is?” Kennedy asked warily.

“Erm,” Willow looked guiltily from one slayer to the other, “the weapons...”

“What about them, Red?” Faith asked slowly already guessing what Willow was going to say.

“You see its like this,” Willow began apologetically, “they're too heavy you'll have to leave most of them behind.”

“Most?” Kennedy chimed in.

“You should be okay with a pistol thing and some bullets,” Willow advised, “maybe a knife...”

“Great!” Faith sighed heavily, “We're just gonna leave all our stuff in a parked car in the street.”

“I can put a protective spell on it so no one will steal it,” Willow pointed out brightly.

“Whatever,” Faith sighed once more before sorting out the weapon she'd be taking with her.

0=0=0=0

**Inside the Cleveland Centre.**

“Typical,” Buffy said to herself; she was sitting in a small windowless office somewhere deep in the Centre's service area. “I find a guy who makes me stop thinking about Giles and some great blob of an icky monster cuts him into little pieces...” Buffy brushed away the tear that was rolling down her cheek, “...god, that sounds like totally selfish, anyone would think my name's Cordelia.”

Resigning herself to a life of dreaming about Giles spanking her, Buffy wiped her face and stood up. Adam had probably hung back looking for her when everyone had evacuated the club. He'd likely as not got himself captured then. Picking up her knife Buffy walked to the office door, opened it a crack and listened. Not hearing anything that sounded threatening she took a deep breath.

“No rest for the slayer,” silently Buffy stepped out into the corridor, “things to do, monsters to stab.”

0=0=0=0

Leading a small-group of fighters through the back areas of the trading building, Under Leader Wengo wondered what sort of creature it was that could kill three fighters and an Overlord with nothing but a knife. Pausing for just a second she pulled her sidearm from its holster.

“Fighters, beware!” Wengo barked as she held up her weapon; the fighters around her became instantly more alert as they clutched their weapons more firmly. “Forward!”

0=0=0=0

Smiling around the knife held between her teeth, Buffy listened as the guys in the comically coloured armour crept down the corridor towards her. Having difficulty stopping herself from giggling at what was going to happen in about thirty seconds, Buffy carefully shifted her position in amongst the pipes that ran along the ceiling of the corridor. Moving her head slowly so as not to attract attention, she caught her first glimpse of her foe. There were six of them lead by what looked like an officer, they came towards her scanning either end of the passageway but not one of them thought to look up. In her years as the slayer, Buffy had noticed, people very rarely looked up; well she'd teach them the error of their ways.

Waiting until the centre of the patrol was directly underneath her, Buffy eased herself into position. For just a moment she held her breath as the officer woman held up her hand signalling everyone to halt. The woman appeared to be listening for something, Buffy was pretty sure that she'd not made a noise so what was making the woman hesitate like that?

0=0=0=0

Bringing the small-group to a halt Wengo strained her ears, she was sure she'd heard something, a slithering sliding noise like some kind of beast crawling along the floor towards her. No! Wengo listened harder, not along the floor, somewhere above her. Looking slowly upwards, Wengo saw a small, native, female lying on the pipes above her, she appeared to be holding something in her mouth. Just as she was about shout a warning the female let go of the pipes and dropped towards her.

0=0=0=0

Dropping into the centre of the patrol, Buffy had killed one soldier before her feet had even touched the ground. Dropping into a crouch, Buffy watched as two soldiers fired. The beams, or whatever the guns fired passed harmlessly over her head as the soldiers gunned each other down. Screaming in agony the two soldier writhed in their death throws allowing Buffy to ram her knife into another soldier's stomach and up under his armour. In just a few seconds half the patrol were dead while the other half were getting in each others way preventing anyone from fighting back effectively.

0=0=0=0

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Screamed Wengo as she tried to draw a bead on the fast moving native.

Firing anyway Wengo saw her beam miss the native and take off the arm of one of her fighters. The man screamed in agony as the weapon's energy continued to dissolve his body. In his pain he gripped the firing mechanism of his weapon, the beam passed within a hairs breath of her head and tore a large chunk out of the wall. Ducking instinctively Wengo lost track of her target for a second. However, it seemed to her that the second was full of the sound of her fighters dying as she felt hot blood land on her exposed skin.

Almost before it had started the battle was over, slowly standing up, Wengo looked along the corridor, all she could see were the dead bodies of her own fighters. There wasn't a sign of the native woman. Feeling someone tap her on the shoulder, Wengo turned quickly trying to bring her sidearm into action, she only succeeded in having it snatched from her grasp. Looking down in fear and horror, Wengo found herself looking into the insolently smirking face of the native woman, she seemed to be saying something.

0=0=0=0

“Hi, I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you are?” Buffy waited a couple of seconds for an answer when none was forth coming, she shrugged, “Whatever...”

Ramming the knife into the woman's throat so it was angled upwards to slice into her brain, Buffy closed her eyes so she wouldn't get blood in them. Feeling the blood spray across her face and clothes, she waited for the woman to stop moving. Opening one eye Buffy saw that the woman was dead. Easing the soldier-woman to the floor, she pulled her knife free and wiped the blood from its blade onto the woman's trouser leg.

“Cool,” Buffy allowed herself a small congratulatory smile, “eleven soldiers and one monster to the slayer and the demon-guys have yet to score, yay-me!”

0=0=0=0

**SAS Command Vehicle.**

“...look Boss,” Henno was trying to explain to a sceptical Captain Fleming that having more slayers and a 'mega powerful' witch on their side was a _good_ thing, “with Maggie and these two other slayers we'll increase our chances of a successful assault by...”

Before being able to explain their increased chances of survival to Fleming, Henno was interrupted by a loud popping sound. Turning slowly he saw two brunettes and a redhead who'd some how just appeared inside the cordon. Without missing a beat, Henno looked back at the officer and grinned.

“See what I mean, Boss?”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**Outside the Cleveland Centre.**

Almost grinding her teeth in frustration, Willow listened with growing impatience to the argument going on around her. On one side there was Maggie and this Henno guy putting forward the idea that going in and 'assaulting' the Cleveland Centre with three slayers was infinitely better than doing it with just one. On the other side there was Captain Fleming who was pointing out just how dangerous that could be because the additional slayers hadn't been trained and wouldn't know how the SAS did things. In between these two warring parties was Colonel Dempsey, the commander of the unit, who was listening carefully to both sides of the argument knowing that it was him who'd have to make the final decision. He'd also be the one who'd take the blame if anything went wrong.

As all this was going on Willow stood there silently feeling the waves of malignant evil just rolling off the shopping mall. There was something inside the building, something no one had seen yet, something so horrific that it made Willow shudder whenever she turned her mind towards the Centre. But still everyone was arguing when they should be going in and destroying whatever was making her feel so...so...there was no other word for it...scared. Finally, Willow decided she needed to say something to get everyone's mind back on the real problem.

“GUYS!” Willow finally yelled drawing everyone's attention on to her.

“Miss Rosenberg,” Colonel Dempsey raised an eyebrow at Willow as he turned to look at her, “you have something to add?”

“Yes!” Willow turned to look at the Colonel; the wind had been taken out of her sails a little by the Colonel's calm reply to her sudden outburst, no doubt that had been his objective. “Look guys,” Willow continued in a much more reasonable tone, “I totally don't mean to tell you what to do, but whatever it is you've gotta do, lets do it now!”

“Why would that be?” Colonel Dempsey asked.

“Because whatever's in there is planning on leaving...soon!” Willow explained.

“And you know this how?” the Colonel wanted to know.

“While you've all been standing here arguing I've been casting a few spells,” Willow explained, uncertain how the officer would take the news; as it happened he took it quite well.

“Good,” the Colonel nodded, “if we can catch them outside we...”

“No,” Willow interrupted Dempsey, “they won't come outside they've a portal or something in one the parking levels.”

“Damn!” for a moment Colonel Dempsey looked worried, he gave Willow a hard stare, “How confident are you of this intelligence?”

“Very,” Willow explained, “and I think they intend to go very soon and take a load of people with them.”

“You're sure?” Dempsey asked again.

“As sure as I can be without going in and asking one of them,” Willow pointed out.

“Good!” Dempsey smiled, “That solves our problem about whether to have the slayers join in with our assault.”

“It does, Colonel?” Captain Fleming asked.

“It does, Patrick,” Dempsey nodded, he went on to explain, “As I'm sure you gentlemen know,” Dempsey nodded to both Fleming, Henno and Maggie, “the best way to take a building is from above and below, preferably at the same time.” Once again Dempsey looked at Willow, “If you were inside the building would you be able to find this portal?”

“Sure,” Willow replied not realising where the Colonel was going with this.

“Good,” a wide smile spread across Dempsey's face, “In that case I suggest that 'Rosenforce', consisting of Sergeant McBride, Miss Lehane, Miss Scapone, Miss Summers and of course Miss Rosenberg; should effect an entry into the underground car park, find this portal and close it. At the same time, Red and Blue troops will come in through the roof after being dropped there by helicopter. They'll work their way down through the building driving the X-rays into the car park and onto the guns of Rosenforce.”

“Rosenforce?” Willow asked uncertainly.

“So we're not waiting for the Paras or Marines to show up?” Henno asked with a grin.

“Do you really think we should?” Dempsey wanted to know.

“No Sir,” Henno shook his head, “I think we can handle this by ourselves.”

“What about Twenty-forth Airmobile Brigade, Sir?” Captain Fleming asked, “They've been put on standby and could be here in less than an hour.”

“Miss Rosenberg,” Dempsey looked at Willow once again, “do we have time to wait for reinforcements?”

“Unless they can get here in the next thirty minutes,” Willow shook her head.

“Right!” Dempsey said sharply, “Lets get a move on,” he turned to his two NCO's, “Henno, Maggie you take 'Rosenforce' and get them kitted out,” Dempsey shifted his gaze to Faith who to him looked the most 'in charge' of the civilian slayers, “I take it you have the usual slayer ability to know how to use any weapon you handle?”

“Sure thing, Colonel,” Faith nodded as she wondered how this Colonel guy knew so much about slayers and seemed totally happy with the idea of witches.

“Jolly good,” Dempsey smiled broadly, “that'll save some time...off you go then.”

“Erm...excuse me,” Dawn held up her hand like a schoolgirl about to ask if she could be excused, “Colonel sir...”

“Miss Summers?” Dempsey looked down at Dawn.

“I'd just like to point out that I'm not my sister,” Dawn announced hesitantly, “I'm not the slayer Summers, she's in there,” Dawn gestured towards the shopping mall, “I'm the medical technician Summers...the one who drives an ambulance.”

“Oh never mind,” Colonel Dempsey replied airily, “I'm sure there'll be something for you to do...” he looked at his watch, “...I want everyone ready to go in twenty minutes so we've not much time.”

0=0=0=0

**Inside the Cleveland Centre.**

Looking down at her blood spattered outfit, Buffy realised that no amount of washing was going to save it, she'd have to throw it away as soon as she got home...assuming, of course, that she made it home. For the last five minutes she'd been watching the demon-guys and it looked to her as if they were getting ready to leave. This of course brought up some interesting questions, namely; how were they going to leave (Buffy was pretty sure they'd not arrived by bus) and once they'd left where were they going?

It also looked as if they were going to take all the surviving shoppers with them. The too tall human looking guys had placed metal restraints on their captive's wrists and around their necks. After this they'd pushed everybody into lines, anyone who complained or didn't move fast enough was savagely beaten with clubs until they did as they were told.

Looking down at her kitchen knife, Buffy sighed sadly, what she'd really like was a sword and one of Kennedy's rifles, but... But she'd have to make do with what she'd got, she couldn't let these things just leave without putting up some sort of fight. Moving away from her hiding place, Buffy ran quickly and quietly towards a fire escape. The stairs should take her down to the level the monsters were on and then she'd do what she could to rescue those poor people. Pushing open the door to the fire escape, Buffy slipped through into the stairwell and came face to face with one of the giant, evil, toads.

“AAAGH!” Buffy screamed in surprise.

“UUUGH!” moaned the evil-toad-thing equally surprised by Buffy's sudden appearance.

Noting that the creature was on its own, Buffy raised her knife to parry the taloned hand that was heading towards her throat. The monster gave a high pitched scream as the knife cut into its hand and drew black blood which spurted up the wall. Stepping away from Buffy as the creature clutched its wounded hand to its vile, slimy chest, the monster seemed to be looking for a way out rather than to launch another attack. Seeing her chance for another quick victory over the forces of evil, Buffy sprang at the creature and started to stab it unmercifully as she forced it back towards the edge of the flight of stairs behind it.

Reeling backwards from Buffy's frenzied attack the creature didn't notice how close it was to danger. Stabbing the monster in what should be its stomach, Buffy watched as the creature stepped back onto a step that wasn't there and tumbled backwards down the fire escape. As it fell it pulled the knife from Buffy's hand and she watched it bounce from step to step before finally coming to rest on the landing below. Standing there looking down at the creature, Buffy realised that it was dead. It's head was bent at a _very_ unnatural angle and there was blood everywhere.

Hearing the sound of boots on the stairs below, Buffy also realised that she was alone, unarmed and there were probably demon-guys heading up the stairs towards her. Being fairly sure that they weren't about to give her bunches of flowers and boxes of candy, she turned and started to climb up the stairs towards the roof. Getting to the top of the last flight of stairs, Buffy smashed her way through the door and stumbled out onto the roof itself. As she did so her ears were immediately assaulted by a loud whooshing-roaring sound. Looking up into the dark night sky she saw the distinctive shapes of four helicopters, at last, she thought, the cavalry have arrived.

0=0=0=0

**Under the Cleveland Shopping Centre.**

“Cooool!” Faith and Kennedy giggled like overexcited schoolgirls as they ran their hands over the M4 rifles the SAS had given them.

“I wonder if they'll let us keep them?” Kennedy vocalised the thought both women had been thinking.

“NO!” Maggie intruded into the little, over excited, gun club, “the Colonel will want everything back.”

“AAAAW,” Faith and Kennedy cried disappointedly as they sulked like a couple of teenagers who'd been grounded for a month.

It seemed that the SAS took a lot of spare equipment with them on their missions. There'd been enough to outfit, Willow, Faith, Kennedy and Dawn with fire resistant, black coveralls, equipment harnesses, rifles, pistols, grenades, knives, sharp sticks, boots...and what was even more peculiar was that most of the clothes fitted!

While, Faith and Kennedy were both acting like you'd expect a couple of slayers might act having been given a load of lethal stuff and told to go out and use it; Willow and Dawn weren't so sanguine about the entire operation. Yes, over the years they'd both had to step up and face the forces of evil with sword or spell in hand, but somehow this was different, this time they were going up against people with guns. Okay, so the followers of Kaili had guns when they'd come after Dawn to try and sacrifice her, they'd even tried to blow up Slayer Central, but this was some how different.

Against the followers of Kaili, Willow and to a certain extent Dawn, had been convinced that the religionists were incompetent and that the forces of truth and light would easily win through. But these guys they'd be facing today, didn't seem in the least incompetent and they also had weapons that appeared to be designed to ensure that you died in agony when they shot you. Of course none of this appeared to worry, Faith or Kennedy and Maggie who all looked as cool as a very cool things. Sighing Willow resigned herself to having to use her magics to take down the bad guys. It was almost a forgone conclusion that normal means wouldn't be enough to finish this fight.

“Okay,” Maggie called, “listen up...”

The little group of five women where standing behind a concrete wall next to the ramp that led down into the car parks under the Centre. Deployed around them were armed police who'd been tasked with shooting anything that wasn't human that came up that ramp. The police had been told to 'shoot to kill' without giving a warning and on no account were they to attempt to arrest any of the aliens.

“Looks like they've put the security shutters down,” Maggie announced after peeping around the corner of the wall, “I'll place a charge and blow the shutter then we'll smash our way in...”

“Typical slayer plan then,” Dawn observed from the back of the group.

“Might as well,” Faith replied with a shrug.

“Play to our strengths,” agreed Kennedy.

“Erm, guys,” Willow thought that as the little group had been named after her she should maybe try to instil some caution, “What about the CCTV?”

Willow had seen some CCTV cameras as they moved into position.

“The Colonel's arranged to have the power cut before we go in,” Maggie explained, “we'll have a good ten or fifteen seconds before the emergency generator kicks in and probably another thirty seconds before the Centre's security systems reboot.”

“Wow,” Dawn cried, “a whole forty-five seconds...however will we manage to pass the time!?”

“Look ya don't have to come if ya don't want to, Dawnie,” Faith pointed out.

“What and let you go in there playing Jane Wayne?” Dawn snapped back, “No way, I'm going in there to make sure you come out again in one piece, I've a lot invested in you Faith Lehane and I'm not going to let you throw it all away on some crazy, slayer, death ride!”

“That told you,” Kennedy whispered to her 'big sister'.

“And that goes double for me,” Willow added belligerently before softening a little, “Look guys, I know you're slayers and you've gotta do stuff but...” Willow paused for a second, “...but you've got to remember about us poor non-slayers...the ones who love you...okay?”

“Okay,” Faith and Kennedy chorused.

“Hey, kid,” Faith smiled at Dawn, “I wanna come back, okay?”

“Okay,” Dawn nodded.

“That goes double for me,” Kennedy stepped over to Willow and hugged her.

“Oh my god!!” Maggie cried as she suffered from a saccharine overdose, “anyone would think you're Americans...” she paused for a moment, “...oh yeah, you are. Now can we stop this mushy stuff and get on with kicking some alien arse?”

0=0=0=0

**The Roof of the Cleveland Centre.**

The roar of the engines and the down draft from the helicopter's rotors disorientated Buffy for a moment as she stood just outside the fire escape caught in the light that escaped from the open door. Looking up she saw men sliding down ropes from the choppers, the black clad figures crouched down as they hit the roof before moving towards her at a business-like run. Fortunately her senses weren't completely overloaded by everything that was going on for her not to be able to feel the demon-guys pounding up the stairs behind her. Turning to the closest man in black who was pointing a gun at her head she tried to shout a warning.

“GET DOWN!” yelled the soldier in a voice that didn't sound as if it was used to being argued with.

Not needing to be told twice, Buffy dropped to the gravel covered roof just as a burst of automatic fire blasted out above her head. Falling in such a way as she could see the entrance to the fire escape, Buffy saw the armour piercing bullets rip through the body armour of the first alien to reach the top of the stairs. The 'man' staggered back to fall on his comrades behind him throwing them into disorder.

Lying there, Buffy saw two more black clad men run up to the doorway and take position on either side of it before throwing what had to be grenades down the stairs. Her suspicions were confirmed when the sound of two muffled bangs came to her ears, one following rapidly on the heels of the other. Her ears were next assaulted by the sound of prolonged bursts of fire as the two soldiers blazed away down the stairs. As soon as the first two men stopped firing they stepped back as they changed the magazines of their weapons and two more men headed through the doorway and down the stairs.

Buffy found herself being pulled roughly to her feet as she had a bright light shone in her face for a couple of seconds. Just as she was about to ask what the hell was going on, one of the soldiers yelled into her abused ears.

“Miss Summers?” he demanded, “Miss Buffy Summers?”

“Erm...” for just a moment Buffy couldn't remember who or what she was, everything was happening so quickly, “...yeah I'm Buffy Summers, who...?”

“Henno Garvie,” the mysterious man replied in a more normal tone as the helicopters flew away and things became less hectic, “Staff Sergeant, SAS...we're here to rescue everyone.”

“Took your time,” Buffy started to brush the dust off her schoolgirl uniform.

“Not through choice,” Henno replied as he studied Buffy appreciatively, even covered in blood and filth she was still an attractive young woman...perhaps it was the schoolgirl outfit? “My orders are,” Henno continued, “to get you out of here or if you prefer you can join in the assault, but only if you agree to do as I tell you, okay?”

“Now hold on...” Buffy was wondering why the British Army was willing to let her join in all their fun and games.

“It's alright, Miss Summers,” Henno grinned at the idea of a 'schoolgirl' joining his team, “we know about you being the chief slayer or whatever you call yourself and your friends are coming in through the underground car park.

“Oh,” Buffy found herself walking towards the fire escape, “well in that case...”

Just as she was about to speak Buffy looked down the stairs to see a pile of dead alien soldiers. There was blood everywhere and bullet and shrapnel holes in the walls, it dawned on her that these soldier guys really meant business.

“Why not?” Buffy smiled at this Henno guy who seemed to be in charge.

“Jamie!” Henno called over one of his men, “kit Miss Summers out with some weapons.”

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**The Cleveland Centre, Underground Car Park.**

Placing the 'Harvey Wall Banger' against the security shutter of the car park, Maggie glanced around to make sure everyone was out of the blast area. Faith and Kennedy were covering her from a couple of yards back while Dawn and Willow hung back about halfway down the ramp leading to the shutter. Satisfied all was in order, Maggie turned her face away from the expected explosion.

“CLEAR! Firing NOW!” she yelled as she triggered the shaped charge.

With a loud 'CRACK!' and a small cloud of grey smoke, the Wall Banger exploded blowing a large hole in the metal shutters. Throwing the long aluminium pole that had held the Wall Banger in place to one side, Maggie fell on the hole to make larger. As her gloved hands ripped at the bent and twisted metal, Kennedy rushed to help her while Faith aimed her weapon through the hole just hoping against hope that one of the bad guys would show themselves. Unfortunately Faith was to be disappointed as no enemy rose to challenge their entry into the Centre's car park. Within seconds Maggie and Kennedy had made the hole big enough for everyone to pass into the building without having to crawl.

“Move! Move! Move!” Maggie called urgently as Faith lead the way into the building.

Going in next, Maggie rushed to take cover behind a parked car as she swept the area ahead of her for targets; once again no one and nothing appeared to fight them. Over at the shutter Kennedy waited to help Dawn and Willow through the hole while Faith took up position behind a white van. Looking out from her hiding place, Maggie checked out the dark interior of the car park. The lights were still out but they'd probably come on again in a few seconds, until then her slayer enhanced eyes would have to pierce the slightly smoky gloom. Seeing nothing, Maggie decided it was time to move, she glanced over her shoulder to look for Willow.

“Willow,” Maggie called, “which way to this portal thing?” 

“Wait up,” Willow called back as she closed her eyes and let the ancient magic that powered the alien portal drawn her to it; feeling herself pulled towards the gateway she opened her eyes, “That way,” she pointed further into the car park, “and then take the down ramp, it's one level down, okay?”

“Roger that,” Maggie replied briskly, she turned to check on everyone, “Okay here we go; Faith you're with me. Kennedy you back us up, Dawn you hang back with Willow, Willow...” Maggie paused as a grin spread across her face, “...you get your mojo on!” Again Maggie paused before calling, “Ready to move?”

There were cries of assent from the other women in her team.

“MOVE!” Maggie got up out of cover and started to head in the direction Willow had indicated.

0=0=0=0

**The Fire Escape.**

Clutching her newly acquired M4 assault rifle Buffy moved to the top of the stairs that lead back down into the centre. The first couple of shots made her jump as she'd not been expecting them. Looking towards the pile of alien bodies she saw one of the SAS troopers putting a couple of rounds into the head of each alien.

“Making sure they're really dead,” Henno Garvie pointed out.

Again Buffy gave an involuntary jump, she'd been so wrapped up in watching the trooper that she'd not noticed Henno come up behind her.

“I can live with that,” Buffy nodded, “there's nothing worse than having something you thought you'd killed coming back to life behind you.”

“Right,” Henno grinned murderously, “now, while you were in the there,” Henno gestured to the rest of the building, “did you see anyone else that hadn't been captured?”

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “as far as I know the only people who are in there are prisoners of the big bads.”

“X-rays,” Henno corrected.

“What?” Buffy frowned making herself look even more like a blood splattered and heavily armed schoolgirl.

“The 'big bads' are referred to as 'X-rays',” Henno explained, “and the hostages are called 'Yankees'.”

“Hey!” Buffy wondered for a moment if Henno was having a dig at herself and her countrymen by implying that they needed rescuing.

“No offence,” Henno added seeing the defensive look in Buffy's eyes.

“None taken...I think,” Buffy added.

While Henno passed on this information to the rest of his team, Buffy had to admit that calling the enemy 'X-rays' sounded a whole lot more professional than calling them 'Big Bads'. As for people that needed to be rescued, Buffy shrugged, as far as she could remember they'd never been called anything much, perhaps she should take up some of these ideas Henno was unwittingly giving her.

“Okay,” Henno pressed his radio's send switch, which was taped to the fore stock of his rifle, “Prepare to move...” Henno glanced at Buffy, “...you stick to me like glue...MOVE!”

Following Henno down the stairs, Buffy soon heard the sound of firing coming from the landing below. Almost before it had begun the firing stopped and there were cries of 'CLEAR!' from the men ahead of her. Jumping over the body of another dead alien and sticking close behind Henno, Buffy found herself out on the upper floor of the mall. All around her SAS troopers ran to take cover behind concrete pillars. Three alien soldiers lay on the polished floor in rapidly expanding pools of their own blood; Buffy began to think that these SAS guys were too efficient and that she wouldn't get to hand out any more vengeance herself.

0=0=0=0

**Cleveland Centre, ground floor level.**

“What's happening?” Group Leader Jafs demanded as he called into his communications device.

In the last few minutes he'd lost contact with more than half of his force, Under Leader Wengo had vanished along with her Small Group of Fighters. Worse still, yet another Overlord had been killed. Listening intently to the message coming in on the communications device, Jafs discovered that more native warriors had gained entry to the building and were even now moving down through the structure. An Overlord appeared in front of him demanding to know why they were being attacked after Jafs had assured him that all the local native warriors had been defeated.

“My Lord,” Jafs replied with a fearful tremor in his voice, “these aren't local warriors these seem better equipped and trained than the forces we destroyed earlier.” He paused for a breath, “I am even now deploying my fighters to cover our passage to the portal while others protect you and the sacrifices.”

This seemed to satisfy the Overlord as he moved away and towards the stair way that led down to the chamber that held the portal. Looking around him, Jafs got the feeling that things had gone very badly wrong. He decided that he'd much rather die here than in one of the Overlord's torture machines. Gathering his small command group around him, Jafs led them towards the sound of the firing coming from the upper level.

0=0=0=0

**The Underground Car Park.**

Running down the 'down ramp' and turning to their right, Rosenforce came face to face with the four alien soldiers who'd been left to guard the portal. The aliens didn't stand a chance when slayer reactions combined with modern weaponry consigned them to the dustbin of history. Quickly, Maggie, Faith and Kennedy moved to secure the area. They were all disappointed to find there were no more enemies to kill. After walking over to the aliens and putting a couple of rounds into each of their heads, Maggie swapped her magazine for a fresh one and marshalled her thoughts and forces.

“Right!” Maggie called as she turned to Willow, “Can you close that thing?”

“Erm...” Willow walked towards the portal; it looked like a big black hole about three metres across and ringed with blue fire, “If you can let me have five minutes alone with it then yes!”

“Good,” Maggie nodded before looking at Dawn, “Dawn you help Willow; Faith, Kennie we better make sure Willow isn't disturbed.”

Walking over to Faith and Kennedy, Maggie started to plan her ambush.

“Hey guys,” Maggie drew the other two slayers over to where she was standing; as she did so she couldn't help think that it was fun to be working with slayers again.

The guys from Red Troop were great guys and really good at what they did, but... But sometimes she did feel as if they were holding her back.

“Okay,” Maggie said in a low voice so Dawn and Willow wouldn't hear, “any minute now the aliens are going to come down those stairs and we've got to stop them.”

“Sure,” Faith smiled.

“Not a problem,” Kennedy agreed.

“Cool,” Maggie chuckled, “I knew I could rely on you.”

“No sweat,” Faith reaffirmed; she'd always liked Maggie; the young soldier had been quite willing to help her blast a way in to Slade Prison to rescue Buffy, so she was 'okay' in her book. “Where do you want us?”

0=0=0=0

**Cleveland Centre, Ground Floor level.**

The blast from the alien weapon caught the lead trooper squarely in the chest. Horrified by what she was seeing as the man literally disintegrated in front of her eyes, Buffy was a little slow in returning fire. As it happened her hesitation worked out for the best as the alien soldier stepped out of cover to try and get a better shot at her. Buffy beat him to the trigger. Not actually having to bother with the niceties of aiming, Buffy shifted the barrel of her weapon and fired from the hip. Her burst of ten armour piercing rounds ripped through the alien's armour and sent him tumbling to the floor.

Alien blood oozed out of the holes in its armour as Buffy rushed forward to take up position behind a concrete litter bin. All around her the noise of the alien's weapons was being drowned out by the stuttering bark of human weaponry and the loud 'CRACK!' of exploding grenades. Seeing a particularly tall alien crouching down behind a potted palm, Buffy brought her rifle to her shoulder, aimed carefully and neatly blew the top of his head off.

“YAY ME!” Buffy cried a little more loudly than she'd meant to; she couldn't help herself, payback was such fun!

In this fight there were no shades of grey; the 'X-rays' weren't human and were totally evil, she'd seen what they and their toad-like friends had done to the mall's shoppers. It then occurred to her that this was precisely what she'd been needing ever since she'd come out of prison, a really good, no nonsense fight!

“I though I told you to stick close to me!?” Henno snapped as he slid across the floor to were Buffy crouched.

“What can I say?” Buffy shrugged apologetically, “I'm just not the sticking sort of girl!”

Before Henno could say anything else, Buffy had jumped to her feet and firing wildly from the hip she ran towards a group of aliens that were clustered around a stairway leading down. Getting to his feet to follow Buffy, Henno noticed that although the slayer appeared to be 'spraying and praying' her rounds did seem to be finding there target with frightening accuracy. As he jogged over to where Buffy stood triumphant over her prey a thought came to Henno's mind. Smiling her almost laughed at the complete 'evilness' of his idea, he felt sure Colonel Dempsey would love it.

0=0=0=0

**The Underground Car Park.**

Stepping out of the shadows, Kennedy lifted her weapon and hosed down the three aliens that led the way down towards the portal. The aliens threw up their arms before falling to the ground and rolling down the last few stairs towards her. Jumping over the dead bodies, she ran up to the turn in the stairs and shot the alien that was trying to bring his weapon to bear on her. These guys were just so slow, she told herself as she continued up the stairs. Reaching the landing she ducked just in time as a blast from an alien weapon passed over her head and blew a great chunk out of the concrete wall. Crouching down and being bombarded with bits of concrete, she raised her rifle and shot the alien neatly between the eyes. Blown off his feet the alien crashed into a pale form that was standing just behind him.

It was only then that Kennedy really saw the nightmarish creature. Thinking how it looked like a slimy, grey-white toad and how it probably wouldn't do Willow's 'frog-fear' any good if she saw it; Kennedy emptied her magazine into the creature. The monster went down but wasn't dead. Ejecting her spent magazine, Kennedy slammed a full one into place as she advanced on the hideous creature. Standing over her victim as it wheezed and bled, she raised her weapon and fired into the monster's face. Keeping her finger on the trigger until the magazine was empty, Kennedy brought down her rifle to rest on her hip. The creature's head was a mass of pulverised flesh and bone mixed with the creature's black blood. Quickly swapping her magazines again, Kennedy looked further up the stairwell. It was only then that she saw the terrified faces of the hostages looking down at her.

“Come on!” Kennedy called, but no one moved, “MOVE IT!”

Grabbing hold of the first hostage's shirt she heaved the teenager to his feet and more or less pushed him down the stairs.

“KEEP GOING!” Kennedy yelled as she pushed frightened people down the stairs and towards what she hoped was safety.

0=0=0=0

Hearing a long burst of firing, Faith yanked open the door to the stair well. Only by dint of her super fast slayer reactions did she stop herself from shooting the first of the hostages as they stumbled down the stairs towards her. Standing with her back against the door while keeping it open she hustled the hostages out into the car park, there seemed to be an awful lot of them. Looking up the stairwell at the sound of more firing, Faith ignored the screams of the terrified hostages and looked up to where she could see the muzzle flash of Kennedy's rifle. At least someone was having fun, she told herself as she pushed more hostages out into the car park.

0=0=0=0

Running up the ramp to the upper level, Maggie was just in time to see two or three alien soldiers burst out of the stair well. They paused as they tried to get their bearing, obviously they were hoping to out flank the fight on the stairs and come out behind the human blocking force. Raising her weapon to her shoulder, Maggie sent three controlled bursts towards the enemy soldiers. Two aliens died immediately and fell bleeding to the ground. The third dived for cover but was hit by Maggie's follow up burst. Running over to where the aliens lay, Maggie dispatched any wounded with short bursts of fire; she'd not been told to take prisoners so these guys were already dead, they just didn't realise it yet.

After fitting a full magazine, Maggie kicked open the door to the stairwell. Pushing her way into the panicking crowd of hostages, Maggie saw one of the alien-alien's trying to hid behind a couple of teenage girls. If it thought that using the girls as human shields would save it-it was to be disappointed. Throwing her weapon to her shoulder, Maggie put two quick rounds through the creature's mouth. Letting go of the girls the monster stumbled back until it hit the wall behind it. Clutching at its bloody mouth the monster wasn't able to defend itself when Maggie pushed the teenagers out of the way and emptied her weapon into the creature's head.

0=0=0=0

Pushing the hostages towards daylight, Dawn glanced over her shoulder to where Willow stood in front of the portal calling down her magics to close the gateway once and for all time. Catching a young teen as Faith hurled him through the door, she sent him stumbling towards the up ramp and the light of an early dawn. Once again she glanced back at Willow who was now standing with her arms raised to the heavens and apparently not noticing the sinuous, tentacle with its sharp looking barbs that searched for her blindly.

Forgetting the hostages, Dawn turned as she dragged the automatic pistol from the holster strapped to her thigh and ran towards the portal. Trying to remember everything Faith and Kennedy had told her about her weapon, Dawn hauled back on the slide and loaded the first round. Sliding to a halt, Dawn saw the viciously armed tentacle almost touching Willow's leg, lifting her pistol, Dawn fired and kept firing as the tentacle jerked spasmodically from the hits she was scoring on it. The vile thing retreated from Dawn's assault but it didn't look as if it was going to die anytime soon. Just as Dawn's pistol ran dry the tentacle appeared to rally and was just about to renewed its own attack when Willow finally managed to close the portal. The tentacle, cut off from whatever it was part of fell to the floor where it writhed for a few seconds before lying still.

Dropping her pistol, Dawn was just in time to catch Willow as she fell exhausted towards the floor.

“Gol-leee!” Willow gasped as she lay panting in Dawn's arms, “Did I get it?”

“Yep,” Dawn smiled, “You got it.”

“Did we win?” Willow wanted to know, she could already start to feel her strength returning.

“Of course we won,” Maggie said as she came to stand over the witch and the medic, “don't you know anything...” Maggie laughed as she knelt down next to Willow and Dawn, “...Who Dares Wins!”

0=0=0=0

**Cleveland Centre, ground floor level.**

Lying in a pool of his own blood Group Leader Jafs was able to just make out the figure of the native female as she walked towards him across the concourse. He didn't understand how he could have underestimated the combat power of the natives so badly. They were obviously more combat effective than he or his fellow Group Leaders had imagined. The short native female was almost standing over him now, for a moment he imagined her screaming and writhing in agony in one of the Overlord's torture machines. He tried to move his hand towards his holstered side arm.

0=0=0=0

Seeing the alien's hand move, Buffy raised her rifle and shot him twice in the head. Lowering her weapon, she rested it on her hip and decided she felt better now than she had since...well, possibly since she'd first become the slayer. This had been a good fight, there had been no doubts about what she and everyone else had done. Tonight...Buffy looked up to see the first signs of day light appear in the skylights...today, she corrected herself, she'd sleep the sleep of the just.

“You're not very good at obeying orders are you?” Henno smiled as he came to stand next to Buffy.

“Never was one for orders much,” Buffy agreed.

“Didn't think you were,” Henno looked Buffy up and down, his smile got wider, “There's one thing I've been wanting to ask.”

“What's that?” Buffy turned to face the soldier wondering if he was going to ask her out or something.

“Do slayers normally dress up as schoolgirls?” Henno couldn't help laughing at the look on Buffy's face.

“NO!” Buffy replied firmly.

“Have you ever considered it as a slayer uniform?” Henno ducked as Buffy threw her rifle at his head.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**The Epilogue.**

**Buffy's Office, Slayer Central, a couple of days later.**

“...so, Miss Summers, what do you think?” Colonel Dempsey sat back in his chair and gave Buffy a fatherly smile.

“I'm still not sure,” Buffy replied slowly, “this all sounds too much like the government wanting to use the slayers for their own evil ends.”

“I can assure you, its not,” Colonel Dempsey sounded sincere, “I understand your reluctance after your experience with the Initiative, but The Regiment isn't like that, in fact this entire proposal is more than a little unofficial.”

“Unofficial?” Buffy didn't like the sound of this one little bit.

“Look,” Dempsey shifted in his seat, “the entire idea was thought up by Staff Garvie and Sergeant McBride. True I ran the idea passed MI5, but I believe you have your own contacts with the security services. No way is this official government policy, we will not be 'conscripting' slayers into the army, however any slayer who wants a military career would be welcomed with open arms,” the Colonel paused for just a moment to give Buffy a searching look, “I'm sure you'd not stand in the way of any girl who wanted to serve her country.”

“Of course not,” only after she'd uttered the words did Buffy realise what she'd just said; she'd sort of given Colonel Dempsey permission to recruit her slayers.

 _Her_ slayers? Buffy shook her head, they weren't _her_ slayers they were just girls who happened to have been given a very special gift and they could do whatever they liked with it. If that included joining the military there wasn't anything she could or should do to stop them.

“I think that this recent little emergency shows that it would be a good idea for the slayers and The Regiment to learn to work together,” Colonel Dempsey pointed out.

'Little emergency'? This was obviously another fine example of the famous British understatement. The little emergency, as Colonel Dempsey put it, had cost the lives of more than two-hundred people. Of course the government was still claiming that it had been a terrorist attack and had covered up the fact that the 'terrorists' were actually aliens.

“So what you're saying Colonel,” Buffy began slowly, “is that you want some slayers to come to your base and join in with your wargames?”

“I wouldn't have put it quite like that,” Colonel Dempsey gave Buffy a small smile, “but in a nut shell, yes.” The Colonel started to explain the idea again, “Whoever you send would spend a couple of weeks being shown how we do things the SAS way, perhaps learn a few of our procedures. Then over a two or three day period she could participate in one of our escape and evasion exercises. This part of the exercise would be particularly useful for us,” Dempsey explained, “as it would give my people experience in hunting a physically superior foe.”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded, “say I did agree to this, how many girls would you want to go on these wargames?”

“Oh we'd only want one or two at a time,” Dempsey laughed, “perhaps start with those two young women that went in with Sergeant McBride.”

“If anyone goes on one of these escape and evasion exercises,” Buffy pointed out, “the first slayer to go will be me.”

Buffy found herself warming to the idea, this escape and evasion exercise sounded like that time she'd neutralised one of Riley's patrols in less than forty-five minutes.

“I expected you'd say that,” Dempsey nodded approvingly, “it'll take a while to set up, how does September sound?”

“Early September would be fine,” Buffy replied, “once I've seen what you're offering I'll be able to tell you whether I'll be asking any more slayers to go on one of your exercises.”

“Jolly good then,” Colonel Dempsey stood up and offered his hand, “I hope this will be the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial collaboration between the Slayer Organisation and The Regiment.”

“Maybe,” Buffy agreed with a little less enthusiasm than the Colonel; she stood up and shook Dempsey's hand.

“I'll have my people contact you in a couple of weeks,” the Colonel let himself be lead towards the door where he paused for a moment, “You know Miss Summers,” he said quietly, “you've nothing to fear from The Regiment.”

“I hope not,” Buffy opened the door for the Colonel, “but then I've been told this sort of thing before and it didn't turn out so well.”

“Of course,” Dempsey replied gravely, “I fully understand your reluctance, but we're not the Initiative and the government will never hear about your involvement from my lips.”

After taking the Colonel down to reception and wishing him a safe journey home to Hereford, Buffy stood and watched as the officer climbed into his maroon Range Rover and drove off, she smiled.

“Pleeez!” Buffy shook her head pityingly as she headed back to her office; she'd go on one of these exercises; she'd show these SAS guys what a slayer was capable of and then they'd leave her alone. Having kicked the Initiative’s butt she didn't really didn't see why she couldn't do the same to these SAS guys.

0=0=0=0

**Later.**

Looking up at the sound of a soft knock on her door Buffy took her eyes off her paper work for a moment; this time it was a rundown on this year's repair costs. Even taking into account that 'Central' wasn't attacked by religious fanatics every day, costs were getting out of hand and savings would have to be made. Putting the report to one side, Buffy saw Willow standing in the doorway.

“Will!” Buffy smiled, “Come in, close the door and sit down.”

Doing as she was asked, Willow crossed the room and sat down in one of Buffy's visitor's chairs.

“You wanted to see me,” Willow asked, “your message said it was important.”

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed, “I've been wanting to speak to you about something personal for a while now.”

“Personal?” Willow replied uncertainly, “Perhaps you should speak to Giles.”

“This is 'girlfriend' personal,” Buffy explained, “and it sort of concerns Giles.”

“Oh...” Willow frowned just before realisation hit, “...OH!”

Over the next five minutes Buffy explained all about her 'lusty' dreams and all the spanking fantasies and wanting to dress up like a schoolgirl or cheerleader.

“You know I did actually consider introducing a uniform for the younger slayers,” Buffy admitted.

“But you're not going to, right?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Of course not,” Buffy shook her head, “but these dreams are affecting my work, Will. Even when I was chasing aliens I kept having these visions of Giles spanking me...its not natural!”

“I'll say,” Willow agreed, “but I don't know what you expect me to do about it.”

“I've been thinking,” Buffy replied slowly, “could this be some sort of fallout from the 'Everybody's Gay' spell or something? Or maybe you didn't get all of Groutie's spell after all”

“I don't see how,” Willow shrugged; the demon's spell had been a fairly simple one and she was sure she'd broken it.

“Okay then,” Buffy tried a different tack, “have you ever thought it was strange how you and Kennedy are into all the bondage and whipping stuff...”

“BUFFY!” Willow gasped in denial.

“Oh come off it Will,” Buffy smirked, “it's common knowledge what you and the 'Queen of Pain' get up to in your bedroom.”

“It is?” Willow asked timidly.

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded, “and now I find that Dawnie likes to be chained up by Faith,” she paused to let that piece of information sink in, “and I'm having all these dreams about being spanked...don't you think that's odd?”

“Hmmm,” Willow rested her elbow on the arm of her chair and started to play with her hair, “I'm not sure, you see it could all just be perfectly natural.”

“Okay,” Buffy interrupted, “I know you and Dawn have issues about guilt and being chained up, but I've never once thought about being spanked before now.”

“Issues!?” Willow replied sharply.

“So couldn't this be a spell or something?” Buffy asked hopefully, “I mean we never actually found out for sure who did the 'gay-thing', did we? We just sorta assumed it was something Ethan had done.”

“No,” Willow shook her head as she went over everything in her mind, “look,” she said eventually, “I'll make sure its not a spell or a charm or anything but...”

“But...?” Buffy looked at her oldest friend pleadingly, she really wanted these fantasies out of her head.

“But...” Willow hesitated before taking the bull by the horns, “...there's always the possibility that you _do_ actually want to be spanked.”

“No!” Buffy gasped.

“Yes,” Willow replied forcefully, “you might have issues of your own...and I gotta say wanting Giles to spank you is a _big issue_!”

“But...”

“What you need to do, Buffy,” Willow put on her best resolve face, “is to find yourself a boyfriend...or girlfriend, I can turn you gay again no problemo, and get them to spank you...you never know you might enjoy it.”

Sitting behind her desk in stunned silence Buffy stared unseeingly at her oldest and dearest friend. The terrible truth hit her then, what if Willow was right and she actually did want to be spanked?

“So, Will,” Buffy said frantically changing the subject, “how's the getting pregnant thing going?”

“Oh, don't want to deal with the spankin' thing just yet, huh?” Willow replied quietly.

“No way!” Buffy gasped, “Now answer my question.”

“I've decided to go and make a withdrawal from the sperm bank,” Willow explained.

“What about Giles and Xander's guys?” Buffy asked, “Aren't they good enough?”

“It's not that, Buffy, it would never be that,” Willow admitted sadly.

“Then what is it?”

“What if they said 'no'?” Willow replied miserably, “As it is I don't think I could look them in the eye again even if they said 'yes'.”

“I think I see,” Buffy nodded wisely, “so, when are you going to the bank?”

“Kennie and I are going up to Edinburgh again next weekend,” Willow told her.

“So soon?”

“Uh-huh,” Willow nodded.

“Well, good luck with that,” Buffy suddenly felt very old and slightly 'empty'.

0=0=0=0

**Later Still.**

“Buffy?”

Looking up from yet more paperwork, this time it was a quote for an electric stake sharpener, Buffy saw Giles hovering in her doorway.

“Can I have a word?” Giles asked as he stepped into her office and closed the door behind him.

“Sure!” Buffy smiled happily, “I've always got time for my favouritest watcher in all the world, what can I do for you?”

“I'm afraid this is a little personal,” Giles said quietly as he sat down.

“Personal?” Just for a moment Buffy thought that Willow had told Giles all about her sexual fantasies concerning Giles and spanking.

“Erm yes,” Giles admitted, “Do you remember Olivia?”

“The woman who visited you in Sunnydale a few times?” Buffy asked slowly, a heavy weight had suddenly appeared in her stomach and her heart began to race.

“Well, not long after we arrived back in Britain I bumped into her again on one of my trips to London,” Giles explained, “and we've been seeing each other ever since and...the other day we met again and I asked her to marry me and she said yes!” 

For just a moment Buffy felt as if her heart had been broken, ripped out of her chest and then been stamped on, she also felt like the bottom had fallen out of her world (or the world had fallen out of her bottom); whatever, just at the moment she wasn't the happiest slayer alive. Quickly she recovered herself and plastered a big, happy smile on her face for her friend while inside she felt like crying.

“Oh-my-god Giles!” Buffy got up and rushed around her desk, pulling Giles to his feet she gave him a good hugging so she could hide her tears or at lest pretend they were tears of happiness. “You sly old dog you!”

“Yes, well,” as usual Giles was embarrassed by Buffy's show of affection, “I never said anything in case it didn't work out.”

“So,” Buffy let go of Giles and stood back as she wiped at her eyes, “when's the big day?”

“Soon, some time before Christmas we hope,” Giles explained.

“So soon?” Buffy looked at her old mentor suspiciously, “You've not got her 'in trouble' have you?”

“No!” Giles laughed.

“Oh that's alright then,” Buffy laughed, but her laugh was just a little brittle, “we must have a party, bring Olivia in to meet everyone and...and...”

Slowly Buffy ran out of words as she slumped back down into her chair.

“Are you all right, Buffy?” Giles asked his voice full of concern.

“Yeah...its just come as a shock, is all,” Buffy replied, “its like having your mom or dad saying they're getting remarrying.”

“Oh...” Giles paused before adding, “OH! I never knew you thought of me like that.”

“Of course I do,” Buffy explained, “you've been more of a father to me than my real father...now,” Buffy took a deep breath, “Why don't you leave your slayer to pull herself back together and stop being all silly and girlie and then I'll come to your office and we can plan your bachelor party...” Buffy grinned, “...we can make lists!”

Watching as Giles walked out of her office, Buffy held on to her emotions until he'd walked out the door. Getting up, she rushed into her bathroom and locked the door behind her. Sitting on the lid of the toilet, she buried her face in her hands and started to cry. Get sobs shuddered through her body as she realised that all her fantasies had been shattered. Of course she knew she'd never stood a chance of ever being anything more to Giles than his surrogate daughter, but that hadn't stopped her from dreaming.

Standing up, she walked over to the wash basin and washed her face. Looking at herself in the mirror she patted her face dry with a towel. Not too bad, she admitted grudgingly, her eyes didn't look too red. Hanging the towel up, Buffy looked herself straight in the eye.

“Pull yourself together,” Buffy told herself, “you always knew it could never be...” she took a deep breath, “...now, you've got a party to organise!”

The End.


End file.
